"We made an approach to sign him for next year, but given our summer...we had some discussions to find a solution for bringing him in during this window," Lions general manager Niki Budalic told the Sentinel hours after the signing was announced. "He was out of contract at the end of this year. We made an approach earlier to acquire him but Malmö wanted to keep him for the rest of the year. So we revisited that this window..they waited until they found a suitable replacement for him, so that's where it dragged on for a couple of weeks."