Mike Ribeiro Jersey Card

Every six months, I write a post about Mike Ribeiro, because he's a tremendously gifted hockey player, and because I have a lot of stuff of him... but also because his making the news gives me a reason to feature him. This summer is no exception, as he was bought out by the Phoenix Arizona Coyotes with three years remaining on the 4-year contract he signed just last summer.

It started rather politely, too:

But when questions were asked, answers were given.

Worse still, a parting shot at ''the guy who is seeking help'':

Ouch.

But perhaps his ''antics'' (mostly late-night drinking nowadays, other matters were involved earlier in his career) had finally caught up to him on the ice. I mean, sure, the Coyotes didn't have wingers to put his nifty passes in the net, but his 47 points in 80 games were even down from the 49... from the previous, locked-out 48-game short season with the Washington Capitals (and before you think of it, he was almost never paired with Alex Ovechkin on his wing).

It's harder to practice or play after a night of partying when you're 34 than it was at 21. Perhaps this will serve as a wake-up call. This was, after all, his first season that wasn't close to the point-per-game range or as his team's leading scorer since 2004-05. I still see him as one of the best play-making centers in the NHL, and I could see him proving naysayers wrong with a mid-sized one-year contract, in the $3-4M range.

And so I end this with another blast from the past, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 1 set (card #S-MRi of the Shooting Stars sub-set), showing him with the Montréal Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform and a matching good-sized swatch to go with it: