Maple Leafs forward Steven Lorentz joined TSN Overdrive to discuss reuniting with former Florida teammate Sergei Bobrovsky and the big changes in the organization this offseason.
You’re under contract with the Maple Leafs for another couple of years. Take us through the experience of watching this craziness unfold with all the new pieces on the roster—10 or 11 new players. What is the group chat like?
Lorentz: It is definitely exciting. When your team doesn’t do so well, there will be some changes in the offseason, and we obviously made a lot of changes, from the top down. We moved on from some guys. That is the unfortunate part of the business. They were all good guys. They were good people. That is what happens sometimes when you underperform, and it is such a big market with such high expectations. That stuff happens.
Every single new guy we brought in, I am decently familiar with. I am excited to get to know these guys, from the coaches to the management. It will be a different look. I am just excited to get to work.
I haven’t talked to a whole lot of the new guys just yet, but I am looking forward to getting in touch with them. I watched their interviews and the clips on social media. They just seem so excited to be a part of such a great organization.
The biggest name coming to Toronto is your former Florida teammate, Sergei Bobrovsky. There is a lot of talk about him getting older, but he is also such a freak with his work in the gym and his work ethic. Can you speak to the behind-the-scenes work he does to keep himself at the top of his game?
Lorentz: He is just an expert planner. Everything he does is so meticulous with his pre-game routines. He is such a goalie. He is calm and a little quirky, but he puts the work in. He is one of the first guys in the gym. He is staying after practice for hours. He is just putting the work in and truly cares.
He is one of the nicest, most humble superstars, you could say, out there. It was a pleasure getting to know him. Word on the street — as everyone knows — is that I got to be his warm-up shooter for the year. He is just such a calm and caring guy. He always made me feel like, even if I wasn’t in the lineup, I was still such a big part of that team.
I think that is why we had success in Florida. It didn’t matter what level you were on in the organization. Their top dogs or superstars made sure everybody was taken care of and felt like they had a place on the team.
It is a privilege to have him for three years. I am just excited to get back to work with Bobby again. I’ll have to get back out there early before practices to shoot on him again, which I am more than happy to do.
As part of this wild offseason, Mats Sundin is now a part of the organization. You grew up a Toronto guy watching Mats. Bobrovsky is a player you know from Florida. Today, headlining the new assistant coaches with the Leafs is Daniel Alfredsson, a franchise icon for the Ottawa Senators. What are your general feelings about Alfredsson before and after this announcement?
Lorentz: It’s funny you say that. Growing up, watching him battle against Mats with the Sens, I wasn’t a huge fan of him, obviously. There was the fake stick throw in the crowd, mocking Mats there. I wasn’t too pleased about that. I am sure that conversation will come up, haha.
These guys know what they’re doing. He is such a respected player around the league. I know guys who know him personally, and it is just a great addition. I am looking forward to getting to know all of these coaches.
I wouldn’t say growing pains are the words to use, but it will take some time to get to know everyone and feel out the number of new bodies in the room. There will be change for everybody. That being said, it will be exciting. I’m excited to get back to work, get back into the gym, and get to know these guys.
Is there one of the new players you’re most looking forward to meeting? Gavin McKenna is now a member of the squad. You’ll get to reunite with Bobrvsky. There are a lot of new faces joining the squad.
Lorentz: I am definitely looking forward to seeing my guy Bobby, and all of the new signings. It seemed like a lot of the signings were depth signings — guys who will play in that bottom six. It is always a pleasure. I don’t want to say a brotherhood, but there is an extra special bond with those guys who just go out and bang. They don’t always get the extra recognition that maybe some of the top guys do. You bond with guys like that who play the game hard.
Definitely, with McKenna coming in, I was talking to our trainer and strength coach, Louis Rojas. He came down to Waterloo and was watching me skate and train a little bit. He just said, “This McKenna kid is not the biggest kid in the world, but I watched him on the ice. He has the puck on a string.” It will definitely be fun to watch this kid grow and develop over a few seasons.
How jacked is Louis Rojas still?
Lorentz: Oh, he is an absolute tank. If you get a few days between games, he knows he can get you in the gym a little bit, so he is fired up. He’ll give you a long workout. Guys are looking at him like, “Oh, here we go.” You have to practice afterward. But it is good for us. If you want to play hard and in your face, you have to be in shape. You have to be strong physically, and you have to be able to recover well. Louis is on the ball for that stuff.
As a former seventh-round pick who worked his way up from the ECHL, when you see all of the signings the Leafs have made, do you just view it as, “Well, I’ve always had to grind and work to make myself someone they can’t keep out of the lineup?”
Lorentz: That’s absolutely right. It has always been about that mentality for me. I have been counted out my whole career. It is kind of something that just gives me some fuel. It is nothing new to me.
You can do all of these projections and whatnot, but at the end of the day, I will show up and try to be the hardest worker at camp and earn my spot.
The best advice I got from Rod Brind’Amour — I think it was in my second or third training camp — was when he just said, “You’re never going to be a guy who comes in here and just has a spot given to him right away. You’re going to have to fight and claw for every single thing you’re going to get in this league.”
I’ve been keeping that mentality throughout the whole course of my career. There are times when you might score three games in a row and feel on top of the world. Then you’re minus-three for two or three games in a row, and you’re thinking you’ll end up on waivers soon. It’s about staying in check and trusting the process.
I am a firm believer that if you just listen to the coach and make sure, with the way you’re playing, your teammates have your back, then you will have a spot and keep the people around you happy.
I definitely feel like I have the skill and ability to play at this level. But when you go out there, your teammate turns a puck over, and you block a shot, or a coach notices a little thing about you, that is the stuff you want to be doing. Those little things add up and help you win championships.
Has there ever been a moment when you’re feeling it, the points are flowing, and you’ve let yourself think, “Is a point-per-game on the table?”
Lorentz: We’re all human. You look at your career stat line. “I can maybe get 10 or 15 goals — that’s not off the table.” But I also realize I am not here to score goals. We pay guys to do that. You want to chip in offensively here and there, and you need your depth guys to step in and score some goals — especially when you go deeper into the playoffs — but it is not my main focus when I go into a game.
My focus is on trying to bring energy and trying to stay hard on guys. It is an 84-game season now, and it is tough to do that night in and night out. That is what makes the league so tough — you have to find the motivation to contribute and play a big role every single night.
