The rise and fall of Mike Ribeiro was completed yesterday when the Montreal Canadiens returned the young prospect to junior hockey.
Ribeiro, 19, whose inspired playmaking had Molson Centre fans chanting his name during the preseason, was out of his league once the real National Hockey League season began and now will start over again in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
"Ribeiro is a young player who acquired tremendous experience by playing three months in the NHL and by participating in the world junior championship," general manager Réjean Houle said in a written statement. "We believe that, for Ribeiro's development, a return to the QMJHL will be very beneficial."
Ribeiro and his national junior teammates return from Sweden with the bronze medals they earned in a shootout win over the United States.
Ribeiro, who suffered a rib injury just before joining the junior tournament, was benched for much of the bronze-medal game and went without a goal in six matches.
Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault, in St. Louis for a game tonight, said the adversity would make Ribeiro a better player in the end.
"He's had experiences he's not used to and he had to deal with them," Vigneault said. "He's got the talent, but you need to go through adversity to get better."
Houle didn't take calls to elaborate on his questionable handling of the Canadiens' second-round draft pick in 1998, who led all Canadian junior players in scoring last season with 67 goals and 100 assists for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
The injury-plagued Canadiens seemed to be caught up in the Ribeiro-mania that gripped fans in the preseason when the skinny centre was showing the nifty passing and on-ice vision that made him a junior star.
Houle could have sent him back to junior in October, but by playing in at least 10 NHL games, Ribeiro is now considered to have one year of NHL experience.
He will have to be protected one year earlier for future waiver drafts and will qualify a year earlier for salary arbitration and free agency.
And Ribeiro, who had one goal and one assist in 19 NHL games, during which he was used sparingly, now has to rebuild his shattered confidence back in the QMJHL, where he is expected to be the centrepiece of a blockbuster trade this week.
"The Montreal experience hasn't helped his confidence," Rouyn-Noranda coach Jean Pronovost said this week. "He lost his confidence and his timing.
"He was used to playing 30 or 40 minutes per game. They brought him up too quickly."
The elaborate Ribeiro deal was set in motion yesterday, when the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles sent forward Guillaume Lefebvre and defenceman Chris Lyness to the Quebec Remparts for young players Jean-Philippe Cote and Stuart McRae as well as two draft picks.
The drafts picks are to be returned to Quebec next summer in exchange for centre Andre Martineau.
The second step reportedly would see Ribeiro move to Quebec for Lefebvre and national junior team goaltender Maxime Ouellet, who would only join Rouyn-Noranda next season.
The Remparts hope to take a run at the Memorial Cup and want Ribeiro for a one-two punch with star centre Eric Chouinard.
Remparts coach Guy Chouinard told Quebec Le Soleil this week that returning Ribeiro to junior hockey was "the best decision the Canadiens could make right now."
"I'm not a big fan of rushing young players up to the pros," he added. "It's too big a step.
"I think Mike will get his confidence back in junior hockey, with us. The Ribeiro we've seen in the last few months is not what he was in the past."
The Remparts can only dream that centre Simon Gagne, the NHL's rookie of the month for December, will be returned to them by the Philadelphia Flyers.