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Former Sharks Center Signs PTO With Maple Leafs

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Hockey News: Former Sharks Center Signs PTO With Maple Leafs

The 28-year-old is coming off a Stanley Cup championship with the Flordia Panthers, and despite being a solid fourth-line forward, Lorentz was not signed to a standard contract.

It can be hard to find a standard NHL contract for a defense-first player with little offensive upside. Lorentz's size, 6'4", 216 lbs, is an attractive attribute for a playoff-contending team like the Leafs.

The Maple Leafs' top two centers are Auston Matthews and John Tavares, but Max Domi and David Kampf are the bottom two centers, as listed on Daily Faceoff. Lorentz is a proven penalty killer, and despite severely limited ice time in the postseason, the forward showed an ability to make an impact.
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Some more analysis here:

https://twitter.com/LeafsNews/status/1831028868376936620

Seems like he'd be a fine depth piece. Big, hits, has good speed, good defensive instincts, kills penalties, plays C if needed. By all accounts also seems like just a solid guy too which is a nice bonus. Ultimately though despite all the positives its hard to ignore the fact that he was a healthy scratch for about half the season + playoffs for Florida which has to mean something.

Might be a guy who has to start in the AHL (provided he signs of course) but could play a role on the 4th line at some point.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Some more analysis here:

https://twitter.com/LeafsNews/status/1831028868376936620

Seems like he'd be a fine depth piece. Big, hits, has good speed, good defensive instincts, kills penalties, plays C if needed. By all accounts also seems like just a solid guy too which is a nice bonus. Ultimately though despite all the positives its hard to ignore the fact that he was a healthy scratch for about half the season + playoffs for Florida which has to mean something.

Might be a guy who has to start in the AHL (provided he signs of course) but could play a role on the 4th line at some point.
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If Domi goes back to Matthews' wing we could bump Kampf to 3C and bring in Lorentz at 4C. I am a big advocate for getting the core 4 across 3 lines. Spread Marner/Tavares/Nylander accross lines 2 and 3. Kampf was also great at the World cup and probably has more to give offensively.
 
cabber24 said:
If Domi goes back to Matthews' wing we could bump Kampf to 3C and bring in Lorentz at 4C. I am a big advocate for getting the core 4 across 3 lines. Spread Marner/Tavares/Nylander accross lines 2 and 3. Kampf was also great at the World cup and probably has more to give offensively.
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It'll definitely be an interesting training camp since we have no idea really what Berube will initially try to make the lines look like. Especially with 3C being such a big question mark. Who knows who gets first shot there.

My guess right now is that Domi probably gets the spot at first. All this talk about the Leafs looking at other LW options don't make a ton of sense if he's on the wing. With him there we have 6 pretty much locked in wingers in the top-9 (Nylander, Marner, Domi, Jarnkrok, Domi, McMann). None of those guys are losing their spots to a Pacioretty or Robertson or Cowan. But slide one of them to C and all of a sudden you've got a hole that needs to be filled. Domi is the most obvious choice really (although not the correct one and that's a hill I'll die on).
 
bustaheims said:
Feels like a long shot to make the roster, but competition is never a bad thing.
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That's how I feel.
Maybe this summer he trained with someone who was able to elevate his fitness or helped him offensively, etc.
If someone shows up out of shape or gets hurt in camp or a trade opens up a spot, there's someone else to compete for the spot.
Or he helps as depth if he clears waivers.
He's on a PTO so they have no commitment beyond giving him a chance.
If they don't find a few fringe guys like this (Alex Nylander arguably being another though a different case), they're not doing their jobs.

 
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