Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.42

www.afootinthecrease.com

The process that is the rebuilding of the Toronto Maple Leafs continued in earnest last week as Brian Burke and his staff added two more prominent pieces in Colby Armstrong and Kris Versteeg. What’s clear about both these additions is that they fit quite comfortably into the blueprint set out by Burke and his staff.

Whether you agree with the blueprint is not the issue. The fact is Burke has said he is going to build a team with a definable top six group of forwards that possess a high skill and talent level along with a bottom six group forwards that are rugged, mean and nasty to play against. Burke is only doing what he said he was going to do and for that he cannot be faulted.

The potential for success though with those two additions is high. In Kris Versteeg, the Leafs get a speedy, skilled winger that has hit the twenty goal mark in each of his first two seasons in the NHL while having to fight for ice time on a deep team in Chicago. That, in and of itself is impressive, and you can no doubt guarantee Versteeg will get an increased opportunity in Toronto. He’s versatile, able to play both on the power play and perhaps more importantly from the Leafs’ standpoint on the penalty kill as well. He should slot in nicely on the wing on the second line behind Phil Kessel.

Armstrong is the kind of player that Brian Burke would likely craft first if he had the ability to clone and manufacture players himself. He has good size at 6-2 and nearly 200 pounds, reasonable skill that can fit in anywhere from the first to third lines and most of all, the Lloydminster, Saskatchewan native ranks very high on many players’ lists of people they hate to play against and lord knows the Leafs desperately needed an upgrade in that department.

Don’t be surprised if Armstrong fits in on a line with two highly skilled players, perhaps a combination of Bozak and Kessel, to take on a role similar to that of Dustin Byfuglien during the Blackhawks playoff run. But hey, all that was just rigamarole.