{"id":787366,"date":"2026-07-08T16:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787366\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T16:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:57:08","slug":"steven-lorentz-reacts-to-new-look-toronto-maple-leafs-its-definitely-exciting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787366\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Lorentz reacts to new-look Toronto Maple Leafs: \u2018It\u2019s definitely exciting\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming off the most disappointing season in recent memory, the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have made sweeping changes to the organization with the hopes of turning things around this upcoming year.<\/p>\n

A new general manager in John Chayka, a new head coach in Jim Hiller and new faces all over the roster through trades and free agency have the Maple Leafs primed to improve upon a last-place finish in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The changes have veteran forward Steven Lorentz<\/a> excited to get rolling, as he joined OverDrive on TSN1050 on Tuesday to discuss his expectations for next year, which new player he is most excited to be sharing the ice with and his role on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely exciting,\u201d Lorentz said on Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of changes from the top down … but every single new guy that we\u2019ve brought in, I think I\u2019m decently familiar with and I\u2019m excited to get to know these guys from the coaches to the management. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a different look and I\u2019m just excited to get to work. I\u2019ve watched a lot of [their] interviews and clips on social media and they just seem so excited to be a part of such a great organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto finished worst in the Atlantic Division with 78 points behind a 32-36-14 record under head coach Craig Berube this past season. It marked the first time since the 2015-16 campaign that the Leafs did not qualify for the postseason, and only the third time in the past nine seasons they finished with fewer than 100 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously when your team doesn\u2019t do so well there\u2019s going to be some changes in the off-season,\u201d Lorentz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made a lot of changes from the top down, they\u2019ve moved on from some guys, and that\u2019s the unfortunate part of the business because they were all good guys, they were good people, and that\u2019s what happens when you underperform. It\u2019s such a big market with big expectations, that stuff happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the key additions the Maple Leafs made to the roster include the signings of forwards Teddy Blueger<\/a>, Colton Sissons<\/a> and Jack Roslovic<\/a> and defenceman Darren Raddysh<\/a>, trading to acquire forward Nick Paul<\/a> from the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and drafting Penn State forward Gavin McKenna with the first-overall pick in the NHL Draft in June.<\/p>\n

But the signing that has Lorentz most excited is that of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a>, who won two Vezina Trophies with the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> and two Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers<\/a> in his storied career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an expert planner. He\u2019s so meticulous with his pre-game routine … he\u2019s such a goalie,\u201d Lorentz said of his former Panthers teammate. \u201cHe\u2019s calm and a little quirky but he puts the work in. He\u2019s one of the first guys there at the gym, he\u2019s there after practice for hours. He truly cares and he\u2019s one of the nicest, most humble superstars out there and it was a pleasure being able to get to know him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always made me feel like, even though I wasn\u2019t always in the lineup, I was such a big part of the team and I think that\u2019s why we had so much success in Florida – it didn\u2019t matter what level you were in the organization, their top dogs, their superstars made sure everybody was taken care of, everybody felt they had a place on that team. It\u2019s a privilege that we get to have him for three years and I\u2019m excited to get back to work with Bobby again.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was one addition to the team that caught Lorentz off guard – the addition of Ottawa Senators<\/a> legend Daniel Alfredsson to the Maple Leafs coaching staff. As a Toronto native and Maple Leafs fan growing up, Lorentz has some deep-seated feelings regarding the Maple Leafs\u2019 archrival of the early 21st century.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching [Alfredsson] battle against [Maple Leafs assistant general manager] Mats [Sundin] as a member of the Sens growing up, I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of him … when he was mocking Mats there I wasn\u2019t a huge fan of that. But [the organization knows] what they\u2019re doing and he\u2019s such a respected [person] around the league as a player and I know guys that know him personally and it\u2019s just a great addition so I\u2019m looking forward to getting to know all these coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lorentz finished this past season – his second in Toronto – with seven goals and 18 points. An entrenched depth player, Lorentz spoke about the mindset he is using to work towards another season in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been about that [grinding] mentality for me,\u201d Lorentz said. \u201cI\u2019ve been counted out my whole career and it\u2019s something that just gives me some fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the best advice I got from Rod Brind\u2019Amour (with the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, the organization with which he spent parts of the 2015-22 seasons) was, in my second of third training camp – you\u2019re never going to be a guy that comes in here and just has a spot given to him, you have to fight and claw for every single thing that you\u2019re going to get in this league,\u201d Lorentz said. \u201cWe\u2019re all human… I look at my career stat lines and go \u2018maybe 10 goals, 15 goals that\u2019s not off the table,\u2019 but I also reel myself in and realize I\u2019m not here to score goals, we pay guys to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a depth player for most of his career in the NHL – Lorentz has never scored more than 20 points in a single season – he is hoping to build a bond with some of the other new additions to the team, who have also been used in depth roles in their previous stops in the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like a lot of the signings were depth signings, and guys that were going to play in that bottom six, so it\u2019s always a pleasure,\u201d Lorentz said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a bit of a … I don\u2019t want to say a \u2018brotherhood,\u2019 but there\u2019s an extra special bond for those guys that just go out and bang and they don\u2019t always get the extra recognition some of the top guys do so you bond with guys like that just playing the game hard.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off the most disappointing season in recent memory, the Toronto Maple Leafs have made sweeping changes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,63,575,85,113126],"class_list":["post-787366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}