Like most players, Leaf winger Colby Armstrong has set some personal goals for this season.

Staying out of the hospital is at the top of his list.

“I’ve never had an injury-filled season like I had last year . . . I’m looking to have a solid, healthy year so I can redeem myself,” said Armstrong, 28, after an unofficial skate with many of his teammates earlier this week at the MasterCard Centre. “My first impression as Leaf wasn’t what I expected.

“I just want to work hard and play my butt off for this team.”

Last season, the 6-foot-2 Armstrong broke bones in both of his feet, as well as his hands, and also suffered a scratched cornea that left him with a nasty bleeding eye and blurred vision. He missed 32 games, many of which wound up being Leaf losses.

With the always tenacious Armstrong patrolling the wing, Leafs posted a 25-19-6 record. With him on the sidelines, they were 12-15-5.

The Leafs definitely need a full season of his abrasive, in-your-face play if they hope to secure a playoff spot. But the 195-pound winger won’t change his playing style, despite the injury black cloud that hung over him last season.

“I had a lot of bad luck with pucks bouncing off a hand and breaking bones blocking shots. I really try not to think about it. But I can’t change my style, otherwise I’d be sent down to Toledo or wherever the heck they’d send me,” said Armstrong, who scored eight goals and added 15 assists in the 50 games he played.

With the addition of several proven NHL forwards, such as centres Tim Connolly and a hopefully healthy Matthew Lombardi, along with new defencemen Cody Franson and John-Michael Liles, and the James Reimer-Jonas Gustavsson goaltending tandem, Armstrong expects big things from the team this season.

“I’ve never been on a team with such big-time depth on the back end and we’ve got four solid lines. With Reims and the Monster, our goaltending is great and we’ve got some great young talent,” said Armstrong, who enters his seventh NHL season after being the Penguins’ first-round pick (21st) overall in 2001.

“But we can’t afford any lulls like last season when we went to sleep for a month and it cost us,” he said, “We felt pretty good when we were winning, and we have to feed off some of those good feelings. We’re excited about the possibilities of what this team can do.”

Training camp doesn’t start until Sept. 16 but Armstrong has been skating with his teammates at the MasterCard Centre for three weeks since returning from his home in Saskatchewan. As many as 25 players have been on the ice doing skating drills and firing pucks at goalies under the direction of Leaf captain Dion Phaneuf.

“It’s pretty incredible to see so many players already out skating . . . This is my third NHL team and I’ve never anything like it,” said Armstrong, who needs just 14 goals to reach 100 for his NHL career. “Everybody is really excited. Everybody is working really hard. I really love the guys and this city.”

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Armstrong expects his role this season to be similar to what it was in Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

“I’m sure I’ll be slotted in the bottom six as usual and playing all over the place, doing some penalty killing as well,” he said. “But I really have no clue where I’ll be playing. I’m just trying to make the team.”