Many Vancouver Canucks fans and pundits weren’t so keen when general manager Jim Benning handed Antoine Roussel a four-year contract worth $12 million in free agency.
For one, Benning doesn’t have the greatest track record in free agency. And secondly, Roussel was an average bottom six forward for the Dallas Stars. He had never scored more than 29 points in a season, and it just felt like the Canucks could have used that money to sign a bigger impact player.
You can make a case that Roussel still isn’t worth $4 million a season, but he was one of Vancouver’s best forwards in 2018-19.