It’s not hard to understand why Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning wanted more toughness by signing Jay Beagle, Tim Schaller and Antoine Roussel, it’s just hard to comprehend why they got overly-generous multi-year deals.
Problem is, the Canucks were expected to give more ice time to young players such as Nikolay Goldobin, Brendan Leipsic and Adam Gaudette, with top prospect Elias Pettersson also likely to make the team in 2018-19. In signing Schaller, Beagle and Roussel, the Canucks have very few roster spots available for all these forwards.