You may well be right that he needs to prove himself, but from what I've seen of him I think he'll be a great addition to the squad.
As for his lack of game time in the last year, who knows why that is. I would hope that Ricki, Tony and Terry have learned from the Fatboy Elrich disaster and wouldn't be throwing contracts out to people who are looking at free rehab for a season.
That's all, nothing more scientific than that. We both agree he's got the skills, maybe I'm just looking back through rose (yellow?) tinted specs.