In the weeks leading up to free agency I made it clear that there were a few people I didn’t want on this team: Raffi Torres, Colby Armstrong and Dan Hamhuis.  Torres is just a mess of a human and a player, Armstrong is an unneeded right-winger, and Hamhuis is an unneeded defenseman.

Which is why I’m very happy to announce the status on all three players in regards to the Toronto Maple Leafs: Vancouver outbid Toronto for Dan Hamhuis, and…are you ready?  Colby Armstrong signed with the Leafs!

Yep, that’s right, the so-called gritty right-winger previously of the Atlanta Thrashers and Pittsburgh Penguins has signed with the blue and white for three years, making three million dollars in each of those three seasons.  Armstrong put up just 29 points last season, and in his final season with Pittsburgh he had just 24 points in 54 games playing along the league’s top centers in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.  Yeah, serious questions have to be asked when it comes to this kids offensive abilities.

On the other hand, Armstrong’s a pretty gritty kid, and a character kid at that.  His countless interviews on Hockey Central over the last year were hilarious, and he seems like a real loveable kid.  He can play at both ends of the ice and, according to some analysts should make a pretty good net presence.

But along the likes of Kessel, Versteeg, Kulemin, Sjostrom, Brown and Orr, Armstrong becomes the seventh right-winger on this team, and he appears to be an overpaid one at that.  This might not end badly, but I’m really not sure I like this one.

The Leafs didn’t stop there though.  They aggressively went after the highly-touted Joey Crabb, a right-wing grinder with some decent numbers offensively, though Hockey’s Future projects him as a future fourth-liner in the NHL. Don’t read too much into this one: he’s cheap, comes on a two-way contract, makes a decent call-up if injury arises but this is more than likely a signing to help improve the Toronto Marlies, the AHL affiliate of the Maple Leafs who Brian Burke has stated he wants to improve this year.

And according to Jonas Siegel of AM640, as well as Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet, that’s all she wrote for the Toronto Maple Leafs on day one of unrestricted free agency.  That’s not to say they’re done all-together though, because they’ve still got a bit of a hole to fill up down the middle when it comes to grinders (hopefully they don’t pay Eric Belanger three million though), and with the likes of star sniper Ilya Kovalchuk still being available, well, you never know.

But that’s not all folks.  Not by a long shot.  The Leafs trade possibilities significantly rose (or declined, in a way) with the signings of players such as Dan Hamhuis to the Canucks, Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder to the Devils, Martin and Michalek to the Penguins and Sergei Gonchar to the Senators.  With these singings, pretty much any team that had significant interest in Tomas Kaberle no longer needs him other than two teams: the Buffalo Sabres, who only managed to go out and get Jordan Leopold amidst losing Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman, and the Los Angeles Kings, whom were believed to be very interested in acquiring an elite defenseman such as Dan Hamhuis or Paul Martin.

It really does appear that the Sabres and Kings have emerged as the front-runners for Tomas Kaberle based on hopes of contension and defensive need, and look for those two teams to press hard for the skilled puck-mover in the coming days.  Either that or one of them will sign Pavel Kubina. We’ll see.

As for projected line-ups for next year, it looks as though the likes of Sjostrom, Kulemin and Brown will all be flipped over to the left wing as the Buds fortify themselves down the right-wing with Kessel, Versteeg, Armstrong and Orr.  It may not be pretty, but I should point out that the Stanley Cup Champion Atlanta Chicago Blackhawks had a number of players playing on the wing they weren’t used to when they won the Stanley Cup this past spring.  On the right wing they had the likes of Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Troy Brouwer, Kris Versteeg, Patrick Sharp and Dustin Byfuglien, and well, look how they turned out.

Again, as per various sources, the Leafs are done for the day.  But it wasn’t a day without productivity as the Leafs solidified toughness, belligerence and testosterone (albeit for an overpayment) and opened up new avenues for possibility on the Tomas Kaberle front.  The Leafs will look to still be active in the coming days as they notably only have Mikhail Grabovski, Tyler Bozak and potentially Christian Hanson or Nazem Kadri down the middle.  There is still quality available, and I should probably clarify one last thing: Ilya Kovalchuk is still available.