from Scott Burnside of ESPN,

In a quiet room on the event level of Bridgestone Arena one recent afternoon, Ribeiro is animated, healthy and eager to discuss how those moments -- Was it really just a year ago? Somehow it seems longer -- have evolved into a most unexpected fit with the Nashville Predators.

To fit here, though, Ribeiro had to first find a fit with himself and with the family from whom he'd been separated.

Ribeiro voluntarily went into the NHL/NHL Players' Association substance abuse and behavioral health program at the end of the 2013-14 season after a long heart-to-heart discussion with Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett.

Ribeiro's family -- his wife, Tamara, and their three children, two boys aged 14 and 10 and a daughter aged 9 -- was there when he left the rehab center a few weeks later, making the trip home somehow shorter, the future somehow less daunting, the possibilities within reach.

The trip back home with his family was the start of a different kind of journey, a dramatic divergence from the path Ribeiro had traveled in the preceding months.

"I think the kids were happy to see me and to see that Daddy was getting better," Ribeiro said.

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