On the face of it, the decision to sign Loui Eriksson was a perfectly reasonable one for the Vancouver Canucks to make. He was coming off a 30 goal, 33 assist season and, being a former three-time 70 point forward, the six years and $36m remuneration was fair market value.
His 63 points would have led the Canucks in scoring that season, as would his 30 goals. For a team starved of offense – only two players, Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen, had more than 16 goals – it was a decision by the best of intentions.