Steven Lorentz first rolls his eyes then chuckles. He’s heard the question before, but now that he’s in Toronto, the towering forward has a new perspective on how to answer.
How exactly do you pronounce your last name?
“Technically it’s (pronounced) like Lawrence, but now I just pronounce it Lo-rentz,” he clarified. Lately, when he shares this ongoing dilemma with his family, his father, Mark, makes a point that’s stuck with him.
“As long as they’re saying your name, it doesn’t matter how they say it,” Lorentz, currently on a PTO with the Maple Leafs, said. “You’re doing something right.”
For most of his career, whether as what he calls an “outsider” as a seventh-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2015, or largely forgotten about while playing in the ECHL, Lorentz has gotten used to people not knowing his name.
But as Maple Leafs training camp has rolled along and Lorentz has continued to impress with a combination of hard-nosed play and consistently upbeat demeanour, it’s starting to feel like more people around Toronto will be saying his name soon enough.
It’s easy to assume the makeover of the Leafs roster under Brad Treliving has been focused solely on size and muscle. And Lorentz fills that requirement: At 6-foot-4, he is the tallest Leafs forward.
But beyond adding inches, Treliving has wanted his group to become more inherently competitive. The organization wants worker bees who won’t fold when things get tough.
In Lorentz, they may have the personification of Treliving’s makeover. Because everything the once-overlooked forward and boyhood Leafs fan has earned has come from his willingness to put in the work.
“I’m a happy guy, always smiling and I like to make people feel good,” Lorentz said. “But at the end of the day, I’m a competitor. And no one is taking my f—ing job.”
Andrew Verner will openly admit Steven Lorentz didn’t stand much of a chance coming into his second OHL training camp in 2013. Verner didn’t really know all that much about the 12th-round OHL draft pick of the Peterborough Petes. With a lanky frame, Lorentz seemed destined for Jr. A or Jr. B hockey that season.
“But we couldn’t let this guy go. He was everywhere. It didn’t matter if he was 25 pounds lighter than the guy he would go into the corner, he was going,” said the Petes coach.
The Petes’ plans changed. Lorentz wouldn’t be denied and cracked the Petes’ roster.
Lorentz is the same person today he was back then: Quick with an “Aw, shucks” smile and a handshake, practically bouncing from conversation to conversation with ease. Calling Lorentz likeable is an understatement.
“Guys he was leapfrogging in the lineup couldn’t help but like the guy, because it was just work, work, work. He would battle you in the corner and then have fun with you afterwards. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Verner said. “Who doesn’t love guys who keep knocking on the door until they make the team?”
Lorentz was a 2015 NHL draft pick, yes, but was taken in the last round. When his professional career started, it wasn’t in the AHL, but one rung lower in the ECHL.
The ECHL can be seen by many as the kiss of death. Lorentz had grown into his 6-foot-4 frame but wasn’t sure who he’d become on the ice. Back then, Lorentz will be the first person to tell you he wasn’t mature enough as a player and a person.
Around Lorentz, it wasn’t uncommon for Florida Everblades teammates to pout or grow openly angry with their lot in life. Not Lorentz, though. That would be a betrayal to the values his parents instilled in him.
“(Lorentz’s) glass was always half full,” former Everblades teammate Spencer Smallman said.
Lorentz’s love of the game was heightened in the ECHL.
“These guys, they get their $500, $600 a week and they’re there because they love it,” Lorentz. “If you think big picture, it’s easy to think (playing in the NHL) is a daunting task. But if you keep chipping away at your goal, things can work out.”
Around the rink, Lorentz perpetually listened to coaches. No pushback. No attitude. After practices, Lorentz would drag players to him to practice hand-eye coordination with the puck and how to win board battles by leaning on them for minutes on end along the glass.
He would not, as Lorentz said with a chuckle, take “100 one-timers after practice.”
“I haven’t taken a slap shot in three years,” he added, continuing to laugh. “I don’t have to. I’d rather stand in front of the net and let guys take slap shots in front of me.”
That self-awareness meant his coaches couldn’t help but give him extra feedback.
“The guys that double down on development and learning, those are the guys who will move on from this level,” Brad Ralph, Everblades coach, said. “Steve was one of those guys. He wanted to learn as much as he possibly could.”
Something clicked for Lorentz through two seasons in the ECHL. He learned his size could make him a two-way player. Lorentz developed an identity as a gutsy, workman-like player, which many talented junior players never adapt when they turn pro. Lorentz became one of just two players on the ECHL team to eventually log NHL time.
“(The ECHL) teaches you to be mentally tough and that you have to work for everything you get. It builds character, really,” Smallman said.
Lorentz received a call-up to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers in the spring of 2019. Before he left, he made a stop in Ralph’s office.
“Ralphie,” Lorentz told him, “I’m not coming back.”
Just like in Peterborough – and his four seasons in the NHL with the Carolina Hurricanes, San Jose Sharks and Florida Panthers – Lorentz has made it impossible for coaches to turn him down.
The little things that can be the difference in a hockey game – proper stick placement while killing penalties, stifling opposition players, finishing checks – were what Lorentz wanted to master. And he did so in one of the Panthers’ final regular-season games last season, logging a season-high 15:48 TOI. Lorentz helped the Panthers kill off all six of their penalties and did so with a serious illness.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice highlighted Lorentz in his own way: “Blocking shots, killing penalties and vomiting. Projectile.”
Lorentz doesn’t let things go without a fight. That’s why, when he cracked the Panthers playoff lineup, including four games in the Stanley Cup Final, he played his hardest. And that’s why, when he had his day with the Stanley Cup, he wanted to show what hard work can lead to. His first stop was to the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre in Kitchener. His fiancée Erin’s father died from cancer at that hospital.
“There’s a lot of unfair things in this life. We’re fortunate we get to play a game and there are kids who are inside there struggling every single day,” Lorentz said.
That perspective mattered to Treliving and the Leafs, too.
They wanted to build a roster not just capable of pushing other teams around, but with players capable of pushing each other on and off it. By raising the level of competitiveness under new coach Craig Berube, the Leafs hope that, say, their next Game 7 won’t present too daunting an opportunity.
That’s where Lorentz’s experience will matter. The versatility in his game allows him to play centre and the wing. His size, reach and attention to detail make him valuable on the penalty kill.
If training camp and successful preseason games are any indication, Lorentz could not only earn an NHL contract but be part of a physically-driven shutdown fourth line with David Kampf and Ryan Reaves. And they might not just be getting token minutes early in a game, either.
“You can trust (Lorentz) to do the right things defensively and close a game out,” Berube said.
Leafs fans might not know his game or his name right away. But Lorentz has proven he’ll work to have them knowing his name soon enough.
“I get to wake up and wear a Leafs jersey,” Lorentz said. “How cool is that?”
(Photo: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
