Steven Lorentz’s three-year, $1.35 million AAV extension was a little strange from the moment former GM Brad Treliving signed it last summer.
Three-year term aside, there was nothing wrong with bringing Lorentz back after a solid first season in Toronto. He initially arrived at training camp on a PTO, earned a contract, and then earned a regular spot in the lineup. The Leafs won Lorentz’s five-on-five minutes 24-20 in 2024-25 despite a heavy defensive-zone tilt to his deployment, and he chipped in eight goals and 19 points offensively, all for the league minimum.
As far as fourth liners go, he checks enough boxes: He is big, skates well enough to get around the rink and apply pressure on the forecheck, understands his role, and provides an honest effort nearly every night. He can kill penalties and is capable of chipping in eight to 10 goals.
Lorentz continued to provide a relatively steady contribution throughout a miserable 2025-26 season. He recorded seven goals and 18 points in 71 games, slightly improving his production from .238 points per game in 2024-25 to .254. Lorentz’s average ice time also climbed from 10:33 to 11:52, driven in large part by a significant increase in penalty-killing responsibility. After averaging 1:08 per game shorthanded in 2024-25, he played 2:14 per game on the PK last season and scored two shorthanded goals by stripping Anze Kopitar and Charlie McAvoy, respectively, in their own zone. Occasionally, when the Leafs were injured down the middle, Lorentz would fill in at C for them.
Lorentz and the departed Scott Laughton developed some legitimate chemistry together, both shorthanded and at five-on-five. Craig Berube, who struggled all year to find lines that embraced his desired identity, liked how they skated, checked, and ground teams down below the goal line at points.
When the Leafs‘ penalty kill went on a 14-for-15 run in November with Auston Matthews out, Lorentz led the team with 2:41 in shorthanded TOI per game. The Leafs then ranked first in the league on the PK for the month of December, with Lorentz and Laughton leading all Leafs forwards in shorthanded ice time. The run continued into January, when the Leafs allowed just one power-play goal over nine games while scoring shorthanded once themselves.
While Lorentz and Laughton weren’t driving much offense at five-on-five, they finished 11-12 in goals together despite starting just 17.1 percent of their shifts in the offensive zone on one of the league’s worst defensive teams. They handled ugly minutes, generally kept their heads above water, and created the odd (often unconverted) scoring chance off their forecheck or in transition.
While this is a bit of a double-edged sword (as we’ll get into shortly), Lorentz is also remarkably disciplined. He plays pretty hard between the whistles while almost never costing his team, taking only five minor penalties (plus just one fighting major) in 151 regular-season games as a Leaf. That quality matters even more for a regular penalty killer whose contributions on the PK are a major part of the value proposition (can’t help the team shorthanded if you’re sitting in the box).
The flip side of the discipline point is that he is a 6’4, 220-pound forward who doesn’t bring much of a physically intimidating presence to the rink. Lorentz recorded 154 hits last season (first among Leaf forwards), so he finishes checks. But there is a difference between finishing checks and truly imposing yourself on a game physically. He plays hard between the whistles, but he is not a run-you-through-the-wall, mix-it-up-after-the-whistle, punch-someone-in-the-face kind of guy.
The absence of that trait has been felt more sharply on this Leafs team–which isn’t Lorentz’s fault, to be clear. On a team that generally receives so little jam from the top of the lineup, it becomes a little more difficult to stomach dressing a 6’4 fourth liner who doesn’t make his physical presence felt in a way that makes the opposition particularly uncomfortable.
The overall profile remains clear here: Lorentz is an honest, low-maintenance fourth-line player with some positional versatility who works, forechecks, tracks back, blocks shots, and can help a PK. He owns enough skill and hockey sense to produce modestly in a depth role. The coach can generally trust what he’ll get from him night in and night out.
Lorentz’s 2026-27 Outlook
A few factors contribute to many fans dropping Lorentz from their projected top 12 forwards without a second thought ahead of the new season, and not all of them are his fault: A bunch of shiny new toys are in the bottom six, and Lorentz is a Treliving-and-Berube-era holdover; again, the team flat-out sucked last season, and a fresh slate down the lineup is appealing; Lorentz was often stapled to Laughton, who deserved more of an opportunity in Toronto with more talented linemates; Berube shaded toward overusing him sometimes, such as when he ran Lorentz-Laughton-Jarnkrok as a checking third line for notable stretches of the 2025 playoffs.
I’m certainly not disagreeing that Lorentz will enter training camp as the Leafs’ 13th forward, but he might also be getting slept on a little bit now. He might feel like yesterday’s news on a roster full of new options, but he is coming off a respectable individual season in a defensive fourth line and PK capacity. Nothing says Lorentz couldn’t ultimately become part of an effective checking line alongside some combination of Teddy Blueger, Colton Sissons, or Brandon Duhaime. Hell, he outproduced Sissons and Duhaime last season!
Speaking in early July, Lorentz reflected on his path from seventh-round pick to the ECHL and eventually the NHL:
“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.”
“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.’”
— Steven Lorentz on TSN OverDrive
He is an easy player to root for — a likable local product and an authentic lifelong Leafs fan. You can hear it when he discusses his childhood memories of the team, including a nice anecdote last season about listening to Joe Bowen’s calls in the car with his dad on the way home from his minor-hockey games.
To his credit, Lorentz is unlikely to hang his head when he sits in the press box. When the opening arrives, he’s earned enough respect for us to assume he’ll be ready.
