Mike Ribeiro and the Phoenix Coyotes won't have to spend any time getting to know each other, which is why the sides agreed on a four-year contract last week.
The deal reunites the playmaking center with coach Dave Tippett, after the duo spent three seasons together with the Dallas Stars.
"It was kind of a more comfortable place for us to be at first," Ribeiro said Friday at his introductory press conference. "Obviously, I love to be coached by [Tippett], and I believe in what he's trying to do, and I think he believes in me. It was just a great fit for me."
It was the same for the Coyotes, who were happy to fill what general manager Don Maloney called their biggest need -- a creative offensive center who can help the power play -- with no attached questions.
"That's been [our No. 1 need] for maybe three or four years," Maloney said. "To be able to deliver Mike Ribeiro … I think the relationship with Dave Tippett is invaluable, because we know what we're getting. This isn't a mystery player that you hope and pray that he comes in here and plays."
After scoring 59 points in 81 games in 2006-07, Ribeiro's first season in Dallas, he had 83 points in 76 games, then 78 in 82 over the next two seasons under Tippett. They remain the two highest point totals in Ribeiro's 12-season NHL career.
"He's a very good player; he's a player that I think will fit well into what we're trying to do with our team here," Tippett said. "He's a player that brings a great deal of skill, makes other players around him better.
"He understands that to win, you have to play well defensively, but he also understands his role, that he has to create offensively. So he's a good all-around player, and like I said, I think he'll be a very good fit for us."
Tippett was fired by the Stars in June 2009 and joined the Coyotes that September. Ribeiro stayed in Dallas through 2011-12 before he was traded to the Washington Capitals, where he had 49 points in 48 games last season.
A free agent, Ribeiro said he wanted to stay in Washington, but when a contract offer did not come, he went looking for Tippett, who got his own contract extension last month.
"He just knows what I can do and lets me, maybe more freely, to offensively [try] stuff, but at the same time you have to be a good defensive player too," Ribeiro said.
Ribeiro, whose deal reportedly is worth $22 million, is likely to have right-handed Shane Doan as one of his wings, with Tippett saying Mikkel Boedker (an unsigned restricted free agent) or Lauri Korpikoski is in line to be the other.
"I'll play with anyone," Ribeiro said. "My job is to make those guys better, try and create chances for them offensively. That's my goal, and it doesn't matter who I play with."
But it did matter who would be behind the bench.
"I wanted to be coached by someone I knew, and I had a good relationship with [Tippett]," Ribeiro said. "I've always had good coaches, but to have a coach that you can talk and be comfortable was important for me."
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