Now mid-July, two of the top few forwards amongst the remaining free agents, Mike Ribeiro and Derek Roy, have signed one-year contracts with the Nashville Predators.
Ribeiro’s contract is reported to be worth a total of $1.05M, while Roy’s is worth $1M.
Nashville’s general manager, David Poile went on to say “Mike is a talented center who’s produced offensively everywhere he’s played.” On Derek Roy, Poile said, “Roy has played in a number of roles and is effective on the powerplay. He provides our coaching staff with some added skill and maturity down the middle when putting together our lineup for the coming season.”
Last season, Ribeiro tallied 16 goals and 37 assists for the Arizona Coyotes. After only spending one year with the Coyotes, Ribeiro was bought out of his four-year, $22M contract. The buyout came with harsh words from Coyotes general manager, Don Maloney, who said signing Mike was a “mistake.” Maloney also went on to say, “Ribiero had some real behavioural issues the Coyotes could not tolerate moving forward.” Ribeiro is supposedly going to be seeking help for these issues. He has played a total of 865 NHL games while registering 202 goals and 454 assists with the Canadiens, Stars, Capitals, and Coyotes.
Derek Roy put up nine goals and 28 assists in 75 games with the St.Louis Blues last season while making $4M. Roy, who was a longtime player for the Buffalo Sabres, has amassed 177 goals and 315 assists for a total of 492 points in 666 NHL career games with the Blues, Stars, Canucks and Sabres.
These two signings do a number of positive things for the offensively struggling Predators. It gives them two veteran centers who can put up points on the board at a minimal cost and with no real commitment. It also adds some veteran leadership to the young core Nashville currently has in place.
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