Mike Ribeiro’s trade request from the Predators is a rumor that makes a lot of sense

The Nashville Predators might be in the market for selling a center, not just buying one.

Predators center Mike Ribeiro has asked the Predators to ship him elsewhere before the March 1 trade deadline, according to Norman Marshall, a Montreal freelance reporter.

If that first sentence sounds a bit flimsy, that’s understandable. We hadn’t heard of Marshall, either, before this rumor was floated out. But it makes a certain kind of sense.

Adam Vingan, a reporter for The Tennessean covering the Predators, brought this news before the rumor popped up.

Ribeiro sure seems like he’s in Laviolette’s doghouse. The veteran has been a healthy scratch for the last two games and has just four points (all assists) since Jan. 3. Laviolette must like his current center mix of Ryan Johansen, Mike Fisher, and Calle Jarnkrok down the middle as the Predators are starting to gel.

So, despite the randomness of the source of the rumor, it’s worth believing. Vingan makes a good point when he says Ribeiro has very little market value. The veteran has a lot of things working against him:

The good news for both is that there is a need for centers on the trade market this season, and a team could be desperate enough to make a move for Ribeiro when the bigger fish get caught.

So this is a rumor, but not an unbelievable one.

Ed. Note: A previous version of this story implied that Vingan’s tweets came after the report out of Montreal, when the opposite was true.