Kris Versteeg
- Thread starter Kin
- Start date
bustaheims
Well-known member
Madferret said:
He's just doing his best Ponikarovsky impression.
hockeyfan1
New member
"They said how I was a screw that didn't fit their screwdriver. I was put on the third-line with AHL players. Wasn't used on power plays. There's no reason to get into all of it. But they had lost a lot of draft picks and they could trade me for some draft picks. So I was gone."
- Florida's Kris Versteeg on his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- Florida's Kris Versteeg on his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
L K
Well-known member
hockeyfan1 said:
Hard to argue with him on the AHL player angle I guess. The roster wasn't very good last year. He was young-ish, and struggled out of the gate like the rest of the team with 2 points in his first 9 games. After that he put up 26 points in his next 37 games.
Not sure where he thinks he didn't get PP-TOI. He played 2:52 on the PP last year. His PP-TOI got cut down when he was doing a crappy job manning the point on the PP. He's a guy the Leafs probably gave up on too soon, but he wasn't working with Kessel and the Grabovski line forced him onto the 3rd line. Maybe if you scored 30 goals last year, you wouldn't have been traded Versteeg.
I think the bigger reason that he was traded was that a second 3+ million dollar salary on the 3rd line (how awesome is it to have Colby Armstrong not play half the year and put up 20 points!) was just too much money when the team already has a bloated payroll on the blueline with the worst salaries (Komisarek and Phaneuf) either a guy that you don't want to trade or still can't trade.
Kin
Active member
L K said:
It's not like he was that far off. With the Leafs he was on pace for a 22 goal, 55 point season despite the crappy linemates and the bulk of his PP time coming on the point.
I think he's more or less right about getting dealt. I think Burke realized he had to retool his retooling and Versteeg was one of the guys on the roster with real value, who was a bit of a duplication with Kessel and who had real appeal to a team bound for the playoffs.
L K
Well-known member
Zee said:
That's just a silly expectation to place on a 24 year old player (and he played the entire season at 24, so it wasn't like I'm calling him 24 when he turned 25 in October of that season). He was a guy with two NHL seasons under his belt of 56 and 44 points, both 20 goal seasons. Lupul's doing what he is doing now as a 28 year old.
Only 18 of the top 60 point getters this season are under 25. That's just an arbitrary and stupid assessment by Burke if he gave up on a 24 year only player with only half a season when Versteeg was coming off two decent regular seasons, and solid playoff production in two consecutive years. Had he continued with his November/December pace - 57 point 82 game pace, his season would have been shockingly similar to Kessel's overall. Obviously he was traded and struggled in Philadelphia as well.
Versteeg was a flawed player. Quite frankly I don't remember being all that disappointed when he was traded last year either as it seemed like he was a very meh, kind of player when paired up with the roster, but it doesn't mean that on sober reflection that I can't see how quickly the team gave up on a younger player.
I mean, it's not the first time that the Leafs threw away a good young player who played a two-way game at 23/24 (Steen because Fletcher was a moron).
GhostofPotvin29
New member
I file his comments under, "meh".
Mikhail Bloodnovsky
New member
The guy is a definition of a doofus. I hated him when he was on the team and was glad to see him gone. He can chew on his mouthgard like an idiot, hog the puck and pretend he is Patrick Kane on another team.