So leo and hickey were really bad signings and dont forget jan kovar and val filpulla. But the issue wasnt signing our top 6 players (especially after tavares left) eberle was a good deal, i know lee has struggled but he was 1 season removed from a 40 goal campaign and he was the C (and after the tavares disaster they really couldnt let him go they had no choice). Nelson was like you said a good signing. The issue was 11m in bad cap between leo hickey and ladd. And dont forget when toews got traded boychuk was still on the books for 6m for another 2 years.
Did they overpay a little for top 6 guys? Yeah maybe a little. But the thing that crippled them was giving big money to
bottom 6/ bottom pair/ healthy scratches.