Permanent Rumour Thread

[CerebusClone]

Mike Ribeiro wasn't a quality player for Montreal, and I don't think we were ever going to progress with him as a top 6 forward. We had to let him go, and he had nearly no value on the trade market.

Besides, despite his paper stats last season, I still don't think he's that good, and I still wouldn't want him back. He still had his share of invisible streaks last season (but he also had some incredibly hot streaks), and again wasn't much of a factor for Dallas in the playoffs either (he benefit from Anaheim's terrible play and numerous penalties in the first 2-3 games).

I'm happy for him that he developed an amazing chemistry with Brendan Morrow, and that they complete each other extremely well. He's producing (can he do it again... we'll see) and now making a lot of money. However, I don't regret his trade (only that we dind't get much in return), and still believe Plekanec has become a better centre (not as good offensively, but far more complete and consistent).

[SAKS-AVENUE]

That's a tough call since the Huet rumour that he was caught with a woman is just that - rumour. Did Huet get oral sex in the nightclub. Were picks taken of him getting one? Is it true that O'Byrne stole the phone to erase the pics? Who knows?

whoa, whoa whoa, wait a minute. Please do tell. This is the first I've heard of this juicy rumour. When did all that start?

Mike Ribeiro wasn't a quality player for Montreal, and I don't think we were ever going to progress with him as a top 6 forward. We had to let him go, and he had nearly no value on the trade market.

Besides, despite his paper stats last season, I still don't think he's that good, and I still wouldn't want him back. He still had his share of invisible streaks last season (but he also had some incredibly hot streaks), and again wasn't much of a factor for Dallas in the playoffs either (he benefit from Anaheim's terrible play and numerous penalties in the first 2-3 games).

I'm happy for him that he developed an amazing chemistry with Brendan Morrow, and that they complete each other extremely well. He's producing (can he do it again... we'll see) and now making a lot of money. However, I don't regret his trade (only that we dind't get much in return), and still believe Plekanec has become a better centre (not as good offensively, but far more complete and consistent).

I think Ribs was good in Montreal. He lead our team in scoring. There were moments where he even dominated in a smallish tricky forward kind of way. But never did he seem like a franchise player that would lead the way through play-offs and a cup. Too many faults in his game and attitude. Ribs will always put up points but I can't say 1. That I would want him back either. and 2. That he deserves the contract he signed. So at the end of the day we are exactly where we should be. Fine without him and looking for greener pastures. As for Dallas? I think it was a mistake to pay him so much.

Edited August 8, 2008 by Fanpuck33
merged

[Athlétique.Canadien]

JT Hockey - Francais - Huet, l’indice manquant!

It's hard to seperate fact from fiction on this one but as many of you may recall, it was bizarre that it was the goalie Huet and not the Captain or the Assistants nor even the coaches went to see Ryan in jail. I've done some digging and there are posters and fans who recall that there was "more than meets the eye" on the whole incident.

Take it with a grain of salt since this source seems to be questionable. Almost comparible to the tabloid level.

[Canajun]

I like the French/English translations that babelfish gives:

"...and the young lady decided to taste with the stick of hockey of Cristo"

LOL!

[SAKS-AVENUE]

JT Hockey - Francais - Huet, l’indice manquant!

It's hard to seperate fact from fiction on this one but as many of you may recall, it was bizarre that it was the goalie Huet and not the Captain or the Assistants nor even the coaches went to see Ryan in jail. I've done some digging and there are posters and fans who recall that there was "more than meets the eye" on the whole incident.

Take it with a grain of salt since this source seems to be questionable. Almost comparible to the tabloid level.

True or not, I tend to believe it was something of this nature that would cause a stolen purse incident to go down like it did. Maybe it wasn't a blow job in a bathroom but it must have been something the players did not want leaked. I doubt it was as simple as just stealing a purse for 20 bucks. Besides who steals a purse and than plays with the stolen cell phone outside, while the cops show up. Aren't you supposed to just take the valuables, ditch everything else and run as fast as you can?

oh well

[BTH]

Where is Janne Niniimaa nowadays?

Exactly where Ribeiro would be had he stayed in Montreal.

Niinimaa was the best offer. Do you think Gainey had Pronger on the table but turned it down for Niinimaa? This was the best we were offered and I think even getting nothing for Ribeiro would have been a solid exchange for our team. Niinimaa was the equivalent he just also happened to provide a bit of depth defence that we needed because of Bouillon and Dandenault's injuries.

[JoeLassister]

I have heard of this on many occasions, on many different forums/talkbacks/discussions. Don't know if it is true, but wouldn't be surprised.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

The fact is that Ribeiro is a good hockey player. (That he's not a "leader" who carries team to Stanley Cups is totally irrelevant - there's maybe 10 players like that in all of hockey, so what does that prove?).

We fell into the fatal trap of tiring of a young player's growth pains and got rid of him just as he was entering his prime. Anything else is, frankly, just speculation and apologetics.

I'm often afraid that we'll do the same thing with Lats, BTW - forget how young he is and give up on him.

Now as for Mike, there's always the "Three Amigos" theory, that Gainey identified certain players who brought the wrong attitude to the team and purged them. Given Ribeiro's punk-ish antics while he was with us, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Nonetheless, looking at the facts as we know them rather than speculation, it doesn't excuse the total waste of a good player that the Ribs trade represents - especially given that Ribs was just a kid at the time, with lots of room to mature.

Another possibility is that he is in a perfect situation in Dallas, playing with the perfect complementary player for his game (Morrow). I definitely think that without that type of linemate, Ribs's totals would dip from mid-80s to low-70s. Nonetheless, that still doesn't make it a justifiable trade. We gave away a 70-75 point centreman with elite playmaking skills for a used jock strap, basically.

In the end, however, the trade hasn't *hurt* us, because Tomas Plekanec is only slightly less offensively valuable than Ribeiro and brings a far more complete game, and from what I can tell, far more character, to the organization. If Ribs had stuck around as a 2nd-line C, we never would have discovered Pleks's offensive upside. So the trade ended up making us a better team, indirectly.

That still doesn't make it a good trade, because the return for a legitimate second-line C was so poor.

Am I upset about it? Not at all. Everybody makes mistakes. This important thing - like the misguided attempt to sign Briere, and unlike the dumping of Bauchemin - this one didn't hurt us. Which is, in a weird way, a testament to the depth of our organization, and a perverse indicator of just what a terrific job Gainey has done in building it.

Edited August 8, 2008 by The Chicoutimi Cucumber

[JoeLassister]

The fact is that Ribeiro is a good hockey player. (That he's not a "leader" who carries team to Stanley Cups is totally irrelevant - there's maybe 10 players like that in all of hockey, so what does that prove?).

We fell into the fatal trap of tiring of a young player's growth pains and got rid of him just as he was entering his prime. Anything else is, frankly, just speculation and apologetics.

I'm often afraid that we'll do the same thing with Lats, BTW - forget how young he is and give up on him.

Now as for Mike, there's always the "Three Amigos" theory, that Gainey identified certain players who brought the wrong attitude to the team and purged them. Given Ribeiro's punk-ish antics while he was with us, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Nonetheless, looking at the facts as we know them rather than speculation, it doesn't excuse the total waste of a good player that the Ribs trade represents - especially given that Ribs was just a kid at the time, with lots of room to mature.

Another possibility is that he is in a perfect situation in Dallas, playing with the perfect complementary player for his game (Morrow). I definitely think that without that type of linemate, Ribs's totals would dip from mid-80s to low-70s. Nonetheless, that still doesn't make it a justifiable trade. We gave away a 70-75 point centreman with elite playmaking skills for a used jock strap, basically.

In the end, however, the trade hasn't *hurt* us, because Tomas Plekanec is only slightly less offensively valuable than Ribeiro and brings a far more complete game, and from what I can tell, far more character, to the organization. If Ribs had stuck around as a 2nd-line C, we never would have discovered Pleks's offensive upside. So the trade ended up making us a better team, indirectly.

That still doesn't make it a good trade, because the return for a legitimate second-line C was so poor.

Am I upset about it? Not at all. Everybody makes mistakes. This important thing - like the misguided attempt to sign Briere, and unlike the dumping of Bauchemin - this one didn't hurt us. Which is, in a weird way, a testament to the depth of our organization, and a perverse indicator of just what a terrific job Gainey has done in building it.

great post. I agree on everything. I am afraid to that the same shit could happen with Guillaume, but there is an attitude difference between him and Mike. Mike was all over the place, talking a lot, faking injury, fresh dude attitude in interviews, etc. Guillaume doesn't act like that.

[habs rule]

great post. I agree on everything. I am afraid to that the same shit could happen with Guillaume, but there is an attitude difference between him and Mike. Mike was all over the place, talking a lot, faking injury, fresh dude attitude in interviews, etc. Guillaume doesn't act like that.

And don't forget about him trashing his teammates like the time he said he would have more points if Ryder would score more. Not a team player at all.

[BTH]

But when he was traded he wasn't a legit 2nd line C. He was looking more like a powerplay specialist with a weak attitude that we wanted off our team at whatever we could get, just like how it went with Dagenais, Samsonov and Theodore. Niinimaa wasn't the best but we needed a defenceman for him and we got one. Maybe Gainey was hoping for Niinimaa to bring more than he did the primary goal of the trade wasn't to get a depth defenceman (we could have got one in a different way) but to get rid of someone who was apparently ruining the team. I'll always think of that trade as a success. No matter what Ribeiro does elsewhere, it remains highly unlikely that he ever would have done it and broken out in Montreal. The trade worked out alright for us and then amazingly for both Ribeiro and Dallas. It doesn't make us losers - the point of a trade is for all parties to improve, not for us to fleece the other guys. We both won but by very different amounts.

[Ecurb]

The fact is that Ribeiro is a good hockey player. (That he's not a "leader" who carries team to Stanley Cups is totally irrelevant - there's maybe 10 players like that in all of hockey, so what does that prove?).

We fell into the fatal trap of tiring of a young player's growth pains and got rid of him just as he was entering his prime. Anything else is, frankly, just speculation and apologetics.

I'm often afraid that we'll do the same thing with Lats, BTW - forget how young he is and give up on him.

Now as for Mike, there's always the "Three Amigos" theory, that Gainey identified certain players who brought the wrong attitude to the team and purged them. Given Ribeiro's punk-ish antics while he was with us, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Nonetheless, looking at the facts as we know them rather than speculation, it doesn't excuse the total waste of a good player that the Ribs trade represents - especially given that Ribs was just a kid at the time, with lots of room to mature.

other possibility is that he is in a perfect situation in Dallas, playing with the perfect complementary player for his game (Morrow). I definitely think that without that type of linemate, Ribs's totals would dip from mid-80s to low-70s. Nonetheless, that still doesn't make it a justifiable trade. We gave away a 70-75 point centreman with elite playmaking skills for a used jock strap, basically.

In the end, however, the trade hasn't *hurt* us, because Tomas Plekanec is only slightly less offensively valuable than Ribeiro and brings a far more complete game, and from what I can tell, far more character, to the organization. If Ribs had stuck around as a 2nd-line C, we never would have discovered Pleks's offensive upside. So the trade ended up making us a better team, indirectly.

That still doesn't make it a good trade, because the return for a legitimate second-line C was so poor.

Am I upset about it? Not at all. Everybody makes mistakes. This important thing - like the misguided attempt to sign Briere, and unlike the dumping of Bauchemin - this one didn't hurt us. Which is, in a weird way, a testament to the depth of our organization, and a perverse indicator of just what a terrific job Gainey has done in building it.

Excellent post,

But, your wrong.

The young man was headed down the wrong road in Montreal. There were

incidents as a result. I think Habs management decided he HAD to be traded

so as to not have a negative effect on our yutes

Gainey made the deal quickly and word might have that leaked out,

so the return wasn't what you would expect.

But, Ribeiro seems to have gotten his act together, good for him. It wasn't going

to happen in Montreal and he might have had a negative effect on the team.

[w00t_n00b]

Habs rumoured to be swapping young-gun forwards with the Oilers ... any guesses? Higgins? Chipchura? Schremp, after his disappointing season? Brodziak?

[SAKS-AVENUE]

Habs rumoured to be swapping young-gun forwards with the Oilers ... any guesses? Higgins? Chipchura? Schremp, after his disappointing season? Brodziak?

Let me guess...............hmmmmmmmmm................ummmmmmmmmm................EK?

[C-Love]

Habs rumoured to be swapping young-gun forwards with the Oilers ... any guesses? Higgins? Chipchura? Schremp, after his disappointing season? Brodziak?

People really need to stop reading hockeybuzz.com, this guy is an absolute joke. Just go back over the last 2 months and look at all his predictions on Sundin, if you read them together it's actually funny.

Please don't post his rumours on this forum, they have no basis.

If you are looking for factual rumours go to www.spectorshockey.net

It's not as flashy (because he waits and only posts when something is concrete or actually happening) and therefore he can be trusted.

[Athlétique.Canadien]

www.spectorshockey.net

Also, if anyone is interested in rumour sites with reputable links just like Spectors, I suggest:

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey

At least he links (as does Spector) to actual legit media articles.

[w00t_n00b]

People really need to stop reading hockeybuzz.com, this guy is an absolute joke. Just go back over the last 2 months and look at all his predictions on Sundin, if you read them together it's actually funny.

Please don't post his rumours on this forum, they have no basis.

If you are looking for factual rumours go to www.spectorshockey.net

It's not as flashy (because he waits and only posts when something is concrete or actually happening) and therefore he can be trusted.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was a rumour thread.

My mistake.

[Fanpuck33]

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was a rumour thread.

My mistake.

It is, but Eklund is an absolute joke. I follow his site to get a good laugh and during the first couple days of the UFA season, he was reporting e5 rumors AFTER sites like TSN had posted official signings. Half of his sources are probably forums like this one with people making stuff up off the top of their head. 90% of his posts are completely false, 9% are things that are already official, and the other 1% is the blind squirrel finding the nut.

[Habsfan]

The fact is that Ribeiro is a good hockey player. (That he's not a "leader" who carries team to Stanley Cups is totally irrelevant - there's maybe 10 players like that in all of hockey, so what does that prove?).

We fell into the fatal trap of tiring of a young player's growth pains and got rid of him just as he was entering his prime. Anything else is, frankly, just speculation and apologetics.

I'm often afraid that we'll do the same thing with Lats, BTW - forget how young he is and give up on him.

Now as for Mike, there's always the "Three Amigos" theory, that Gainey identified certain players who brought the wrong attitude to the team and purged them. Given Ribeiro's punk-ish antics while he was with us, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Nonetheless, looking at the facts as we know them rather than speculation, it doesn't excuse the total waste of a good player that the Ribs trade represents - especially given that Ribs was just a kid at the time, with lots of room to mature.

Another possibility is that he is in a perfect situation in Dallas, playing with the perfect complementary player for his game (Morrow). I definitely think that without that type of linemate, Ribs's totals would dip from mid-80s to low-70s. Nonetheless, that still doesn't make it a justifiable trade. We gave away a 70-75 point centreman with elite playmaking skills for a used jock strap, basically.

In the end, however, the trade hasn't *hurt* us, because Tomas Plekanec is only slightly less offensively valuable than Ribeiro and brings a far more complete game, and from what I can tell, far more character, to the organization. If Ribs had stuck around as a 2nd-line C, we never would have discovered Pleks's offensive upside. So the trade ended up making us a better team, indirectly.

That still doesn't make it a good trade, because the return for a legitimate second-line C was so poor.

Am I upset about it? Not at all. Everybody makes mistakes. This important thing - like the misguided attempt to sign Briere, and unlike the dumping of Bauchemin - this one didn't hurt us. Which is, in a weird way, a testament to the depth of our organization, and a perverse indicator of just what a terrific job Gainey has done in building it.

Well said. I agree with everything you said. Many people here seem to forget that although Ribs' attitude might not have been the best, he was still young and had time to mature(which he did in Dallas). He also showed us that he had the Tlaen to be a good 2nd line centre in the NHL. I think the Habs gave up on him too early and like you said, I hope the same won't happen with Gui (if he doesn't score 25 goals this year!)

but to get rid of someone who was apparently ruining the team. I'll always think of that trade as a success.

I think you guys are putting way too much blame on Ribs' shoulders. To say that he was the Cancer in the dressing room is exagerated. Let's not forget that the habs we NOT the team we have today. The Habs were a bad team back then.

I still this that if Gainey had been more patient with Ribs, we could have gotten alot more than what we did. If bob was able to talk to Kovalev I think he could have done the same with Ribs...but he chose to trade him instead, which was not a good move.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Habsfan

[alexstream]

Ribs didn't fit. Point to the line.

He is a super good player and we should have got more for him. But he would never have got 80+ pts here.

And if we had kept him, we'd never have discovered Super-Plekanec.

/end of all Ribs discussion for ever.

[MAK]

Ribs didn't fit. Point to the line.

it's not a reason to give him away for a 7th D.

[saskhab]

Hockeybuzz has some decent bloggers, in particular Dan Tolensky, and their Cap Central section is second to none for team-by-team cap breakdown as they got the guy who ran http://www.nhlscap.com/ to move his spreadsheets to their site. Unfortunately, these guys get overshadowed by Eklund's rep.

As per that Oilers/Habs "young guns" rumor, it just doesn't appear to make any sense on the surface. Both teams seem to have the same strengths in terms of young forwards, with Edmonton having a slight edge in centre (Horcoff, Gagner, Brule, Schremp) and the Habs on the wing. On D, the Habs seem set for this year and the coming years. Edmonton might desire one for their farm system this season, but I just don't see enough of a match here for any kind of player for player swap. Both Edmonton and Montreal dealt some of the guys they wanted to deal (Edmonton in particular moving Stoll, Torres, and Pitkanen out; Montreal moving Grabovski and Locke) so there isn't even a problem for problem type deal to make anymore.

Fact is, last year at this time Ek was spouting off on how a Marleau to Montreal deal was pretty much imminent, and then Gainey came back from vacation and said how much he enjoyed his time off and kind of made fun of all the Marleau talk. This time of year, there is not much action at all on the trade front as most of the cap space is taken up.

[CerebusClone]

Ribs didn't fit. Point to the line.

He is a super good player and we should have got more for him. But he would never have got 80+ pts here.

And if we had kept him, we'd never have discovered Super-Plekanec.

/end of all Ribs discussion for ever.

Actually we'll also have to see if Ribeiro can even get another 80+ point season during the rest of his career. His final stats might be a little inflated due to an amazingly hot streak in December where he scored 11 goals in 14 games, as well as a great season start. Other than that, he's been to same inconsistent (although less than he was on Montreal) Mike Ribeiro who got a point here and there, as well as the occasional 3-4 point game to boost his stats.

To me, he remains mostly an offensive specialist who lacks the consistency to be a quality top 2 centre in the NHL. Of course, I would have liked to get a better return, but the fact is that he was almost worthless on he market; after all, even in Montreal, most of us were all talking about our lack of a good 2nd line centre despite his 60+ point season.

ps. By the way, Janne Niinimaa was a former All-Star coming off an injury who recently had a few consecutive 40+ point seasons. My problem with this trade is not that Niinimaa didn't do anything, but mostly that Bob Gainey acquired a powerplay specialist to simply use him a 7th defensive defenseman (Niinimaa never got a chance to do what he does best with the Canadiens). I'm sure we could have found any marginal player without a contract (and we already had Traverse, Jancevski, as well as young Ryan O'Byrne) to do the same, instead of trading away a young offensive specialist. Ideally, we simply could have done what Dallas dat the beginning, use Ribeiro mostly on the powerplay where he's a great asset.

That's what bugging me the most about this, the improvision and the lack of vision of Gainey.

Edited August 12, 2008 by CerebusClone

[saskhab]

Anyone who had watched Niinimaa in the previous couple of seasons knew he was on a sharp decline. I was baffled when the Isles signed him to the contract he was on when we acquired him... except for the fact that it was Milbury who signed him. Bob took a gamble based on need and lost.

Niinimaa I think was expected to stick on the top 6, BTW, he wasn't expected to be a #7. He played his way out of the lineup, only to find a spot again after the Rivet trade with Gorges still not adjusted to the Habs' system, and Carbo's preference to use Streit as a forward. He couldn't unseat Dandenault as a regular on D, which says a lot about Niinimaa's abilities at the time.

[CerebusClone]

Anyone who had watched Niinimaa in the previous couple of seasons knew he was on a sharp decline. I was baffled when the Isles signed him to the contract he was on when we acquired him... except for the fact that it was Milbury who signed him. Bob took a gamble based on need and lost.

Basically, we traded a question mark for another question mark, as well as two offensive specialists. However, Niinimaa was probably a better player at his "prime" that had been Ribeiro with the Canadiens; Ribeiro was inconsistent during the regular season, and simply useless during the playoffs (and it's wasn't like Thornton who plays well, but isn't getting the points... Ribeiro was just invisible). He actually seemed to be regressing at the time of the trade, we gave him every chance he could possibly hope for in Montreal, so it's not like it was a difficult decision to trade him away.

Niinimaa I think was expected to stick on the top 6, BTW, he wasn't expected to be a #7. He played his way out of the lineup, only to find a spot again after the Rivet trade with Gorges still not adjusted to the Habs' system, and Carbo's preference to use Streit as a forward. He couldn't unseat Dandenault as a regular on D, which says a lot about Niinimaa's abilities at the time.

I still don't think he was ever given a chance to play as a powerplay specialist, which he was. Also, I don't think Carbonneau ever had any intention of benching Dandeneaut; even last season when it become obvious that Dandeneault had no place on defence, Carbonneau did everything he could to keep him as a regular in the lineup, even as a forward on our first line... and at the exepense of better younger players like Chipchura and Lapierre.

In my opinion, Gainey only wanted a temporary solution until Bouillon came back, and also because Dandeneault was not 100% to start start the season, and that's why he acquired Niinimaa.

Anyways... we better off today without either of them...

ps. I actually believe that Niinimaa played better than Dandeneault that season... which says a lot about Dandeneault ;-)

Edited August 12, 2008 by CerebusClone