Report: Coyotes were willing to trade 1st round pick in order to dump Ribeiro in a trade
The "mistake" that was the short lived Mike Ribeiro era in Phoenix could've proven even more costly to the Phoenix Coyotes than it ultimately did.
According to TSN's Darren Dreger, Ribeiro's trade value was underwater to such an extreme degree that the Coyotes were willing to bundle their first round draft pick in a trade with a club that was willing to take on the full freight of his contract:
The Flames were aggressive pre-draft. Offered to take on Mike Ribeiro for 12th pick (Ribeiro wouldn't waive). Ultimately, he was bought out.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 30, 2014
Ultimately Ribeiro declined to go to Calgary and the Coyotes picked Brandan Perlini and used an ordinary course buyout on Ribeiro's deal. Two days later they managed to acquire 66 percent of Sam Gagner's contract in a three-way deal with the Lightning, so in this instance at least, Ribeiro did the Coyotes a massive favor.
Ribeiro wasn't the only bad contract that the Flames targeted in a trade, apparently. Dreger suggests that the Flames also offered to take on Cam Ward's exorbitant contract in exchange for the seventh overall pick.
Calgary's willingness to take on the bad contracts signed by poorer teams didn't work out, but both offers are suggestive of a very smart way for the Flames to leverage the ferocious intensity (and money making power) of a Canadian market.