Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Predators Add Ribeiro

The Nashville Predators are looking at life without Mike Fisher to start the season and are making whatever moves they can to ensure that they stay in the Central Division race, trying not to get too far behind early.

On Tuesday, the Predators signed centre Mike Ribeiro to a new 1-year deal, worth $1.05 million.  Ribeiro had his contract bought out by the Coyotes earlier in the off-season and was made into an unrestricted free agent.

In the 2014 season, Ribeiro had 16 goals and 47 points in 80 games with Phoenix and ranked 96th among forwards in scoring.  It wasn't a big year for the 34-year old centre, but the Coyotes aren't known for their big individual efforts in the scoring columns any way.

At the same time, neither is Nashville, but they are looking to change that.  The Predators have already added Olli Jokinen down the middle and they managed to snag scoring winger James Neal out of Pittsburgh, so they are trying their hardest to add some kind of offense.

Salary CapThe depth is starting to improve among their forwards, as their projected roster has been filled up among the forward ranks.  Assuming that Fisher heads to the Long Term Injured Reserve to start the year, the Predators already have 20 players, including 13 forwards, signed on for a cap hit of $51.2 million, leaving all kinds of space to fill up their blueline.  The team still has Michael Del Zotto and Ryan Ellis to sign from their RFA crop, which could round out the team quite nicely.


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