Coyotes buy out Mike Ribeiro due to behavioral issues

The Phoenix Arizona Coyotes have bought out three remaining years on Mike Ribeiro’s contract. Ribeiro was owed $5.5 million in 2014-15, $6 million in 2015-16 and $6 million in 2016-17 with an average cap hit of $5.5 million a season. The Coyotes will now pay Ribeiro $1,944,444 through 2019-20 and will end up saving roughly $5.9 million on the contract. However, the team didn’t cut Ribeiro loose due to financial woes.

That’s a pretty telling Tweet. The fact Ribeiro is seeking help indicates this is a pretty serious situation. The details are still pretty vague as to what kind of issues the team was dealing with, but they must have been a major distraction for the team to buy him out.

Ribeiro has been linked to bad behavior and a “cancerous” attitude in the past and the Coyotes were aware of that.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Ribeiro. He has the talent to be a contributor for any number of teams, but few will want to take a gamble on him until he has a hold on whatever is troubling him off the ice. He’ll get a new contract, but hopefully the next one will end under better circumstances.

About David Rogers

Editor for The Comeback and Contributing Editor for Awful Announcing. Lover of hockey, soccer and all things pop culture.

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