Lorentz signed a professional tryout with Toronto after scoring one goal and two assists in 38 games last season.
Steven Lorentz is hoping he can assist the Maple Leafs in bringing a Stanley Cup back to Toronto.
The 28-year-old Kitchener, Ontario, native joined TSN 1050's First Up with Carlo Colaiacovo and Aaron Korolnek on Monday morning to discuss the process of signing a professional tryout with Toronto and what it'll be like to play for the team he grew up cheering for.
He said that after winning the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers in June, there wasn't much time to think about his future, with July 1 around the corner.
"We were celebrating with the team in Fort Lauderdale on the beach there and stuff, and within 15 hours after the parade, I think we had like six or seven guys already on new teams. That's kind of the nature of the business, especially this year, with everything being so condensed there, it didn't really give you a whole lot of time to want to sit down and think about your future if you are a pending free agent," Lorentz said.
"I definitely had a lot of interest from other teams and I was kind of looking around, doing some reading on depth charts and coaches and stuff like that, and obviously, being a Toronto Maple Leaf is something I've always wanted to be since a little kid. For an opportunity like this to come up, I just thought that, this is a group that I thought I could come in [to] and use what I learned last year, in winning with Florida, to hopefully bring that knowledge and that experience to a team like Toronto. And I think it could be a good fit, pending all goes well."
Lorentz admitted that his father was the one who got him cheering for the Maple Leafs at such an early age.
"As long as I can remember, my room's been painted with Maple Leafs all over the walls and posters hung up of old legends. It's pretty cool to to see it come full circle like this and having the opportunity to be a Leaf is very special and something I take a lot of pride in."
With that being said, making the Maple Leafs out of training camp would be a dream come true for Lorentz. But he doesn't want to stop there. The forward wants to be a part of the group that brings hockey's biggest trophy back to Toronto.
"To be able to do that in a Leafs sweater, nicely close to home with lots of friends and family around town, and in the area, would be something that I would take a lot of pride in, being from just up the road, and the team that I grew up cheering for," Lorentz said.
"Being able to hoist the Stanley Cup here in Toronto would be something that would be just incredible for everybody."
As a left-shot, Lorentz could be a good depth option for the Maple Leafs, given how thin their left side is. He might not bring the scoring touch, with just one goal in 38 games with Florida last season.
However, Lorentz is hoping he can bring experience more than anything else.
"There's a lot that goes into [winning the Stanley Cup], and you can't really put your finger on one thing, right? There's a lot of luck that comes into it as well. Obviously, the harder you work, the luckier you get, that goes without saying. But there's going to be a lot of games that you necessarily deserve to win or something's not going to go your way, and it's about being resilient," Lorentz said of what he learned winning with Florida.
"You can sit there and say, 'Poor me,' or you can blame it on this or that, or you can put your head back down and get back to work. No one's really going to feel bad for you. Each team is going through the same thing. They're all in the same boat. They'll do anything to get that advantage and get that upper hand. So, just go out there, and, like I said, learn that you got guys doing things that they'd might not be comfortable doing and you might have guys on the first line blocking shots and really laying out on defense and that doesn't go unnoticed with the guys in the locker room.
"You might not see that on the stats sheet, but there's little things like that, guys going that extra mile, that another team, or another player, might not do. It's little things like that that all adds up at the end of the day and I think that's what Florida did well... I've looked at this group (the Maple Leafs) and I believe this group can get the job done."
