Really, the Clarkson signing wasn't a bad signing because he's a bad player, it was a bad signing because it was too much money for too much term. I.e., the consensus was he'll be roughly worth his cap hit in years 1-2 but nowhere close as time goes on. That wasn't really based on stats, other than those that show that power forwards with similar games have a tendency to decline more quickly once they cross 30 than, say, your skill guys. That's a "time will tell" thing. Complaining about the Clarkson signing so far is mostly complaining about how much he's been suspended.
The main Leafs' decision that was panned pretty universally from a fancystats perspective was buying out Grabovski in favour of re-signing Tyler Bozak. Those stats suggested that Tyler Bozak isn't particularly good at hockey, isn't worth 4+M, and certainly isn't remotely close to a first line centre, and that everyone is better at everything when playing with Grabovski as opposed to Bozak, including Kessel. Leaf fans scoffed at this and cited the eye test for the proposition that it was the right decision.
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