As expected former Vancouver Canucks forward Brendan Morrison was signed on Monday, and stayed on the West Coast, joining the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Terms have yet to be disclosed but it’s reportedly either a one or two year contract.

It’ll be interesting to see what Morrison’s new contract will be, given the Ducks are currently sitting around $54 million in cap space.

Of course the Ducks coud get some additional cap relief if as rumored they end up peddling Mathieu Schneider’s $5.75 million contract for next season.

Morrison’s performance has been hampered by injury over the past three seasons, two of which he played through nagging pain which clearly affected his play. If he can stay healthy this season however he could be good for 55-60 points this season and provide valuable offensive depth to a Ducks club lacking scoring punch last season.

The Tampa Bay Lightning meanwhile continued to add to their forward depth by signing veteran forward Mark Recchi to a one-year, $1.25 million contract.

For those wondering why the Bolts are loading up at forward at the expense of their defense, it’s believed they’re planning to shop a forward (possibly Jussi Jokinen or Michel Ouellet) for a defenseman.

Recchi had a rough start to last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, netting only 8 points in 19 games and becoming a healthy scratch, but rallied after being dealt to the Atlanta Thrashers with 40 points in 53 games.

If Recchi can manage that same pace for a full season with the Bolts he could be a good, affordable addition.

A few weeks ago on the trade rumors page of my website I commented on the possibility of the Vancouver Canucks re-signing center Brendan Morrison, an unrestricted free agent at season’s end:

“The only real area of concern regarding Morrison is his injury history, otherwise there'd be no question the Canucks would re-sign him. The Canucks presently have 12 players under contract for next season at just over $34 million.  With the salary cap expected to rise again they could have enough cap space to re-sign Morrison if they so choose, although it'll cost them more than the $3.2 million he's making this season, especially if ...he's on pace for a career-best 30 goals.”

This generated considerable response from Canucks fans, but none of them wondering about how much Morrison is worth or if the Canucks could afford him, but rather my comment about his injury history.

These responses pointed out that Morrison is currently the NHL’s active leader in consecutive games played, not missing a game since the 1999-2000 season.

Most were respectful in their response, wondering if I were “confused” or  “mistaken”. A few  however were downright rude, with one not only questioning my intelligence but suggesting I had canine ancestry.

Morrison didn’t miss any games in the previous two seasons, but he did play through pain.

In 2005-06 he suffered a hip injury, which grew worse as the season progressed, limiting his skating ability and his effectiveness. The problem was serious enough to require surgery after the ‘05-’06 season, and the recovery carried over in the 2006-07 season.

Morrison claimed that by mid-season he finally felt free of the after-effects of his hip surgery. Then, with just over two weeks remaining in the ‘06-’07 season, he suffered an abdominal injury.

Again, Morrison gritted it out, but the injury affected his skating and effectiveness, particularly in the 2007 playoffs. And for the second straight year, Morrison went under the knife in the off-season.

I credit Morrison for playing through pain, but while he never missed a game those injuries obviously affected his performance.

So much so that it led to two years of trade speculation, media musings over his future with the club, and some Canucks fans calling for Morrison to be traded.

Just because an injured player never misses a game doesn’t mean the injury doesn’t exist. Because of the penchant for NHL teams to hide the injuries of their players, it often accounts for a star player's puzzling slump or decline in performance.

Morrison has a recent injury history, and it’s something that Canucks management will have to take into consideration if/when they meet with Morrison and his agent to discuss a possible contract extension.