Potential upside, put up good points in Pittsburgh but was the victim of not getting a QO and looking elsewhere. Gives actual competition within the bottom 6 for a role, and gives us an actual player to play over Lucic on the third line
Worth noting that his point total is inflated by who he was playing with. Simon's inability to finish or set-up plays while getting repeated chances on Sid's wing is as good of a reason to non-tender a player as any. That aside, Simon is a really solid signing at this total non-cap hit so long as he's used as a plug & play winger around the line-up, rather than in any singular role. His game doesn't fit the traditional bottom six role, but lacks the finish to be in the top six. He can play on any line, but I wouldn't necessarily want him as a permanent member of any of them either. Shoulder is a concern, but he already had one of the worst shots in the league so I wouldn't worry about it getting much worse as long as he can still be a competent playmaker. He does a lot of the little things that coaches love right, so at least he's not one of those guys who is useless when not producing...the skill set just hasn't coalesced into a sustainable role yet.
As a Penguins fan I'd be ecstatic to have Simon on the roster for $700k...if we had a different coach. He was given too many chances in too large of a role with consistently mediocre to poor results for that to continue. A fresh start was a necessity and he can be a solid player, but one look at his stat line and who his most common linemates were (Crosby-Guentzel, Malkin-Guentzel) paints an effective picture of a player whose role was larger than their skillset. He's not Pascal Dupuis or Carl Hagelin, no matter how much Sullivan utilized him as such, but that doesn't mean he can't be efficient in a smaller role.
As for the Chris Simon stuff...spelled the same, pronounced completely differently. si-MOAN.