Steven Lorentz just watched the Toronto Maple Leafs make his own job tougher this summer.
Toronto added depth forward Brandon Duhaime in free agency, and the fit overlaps with him almost exactly.
The veteran carries a $1,350,000 cap hit. Duhaime comes in at $1,850,000, a real gap for two players who look almost interchangeable.
Both bring the same identity: heavy forechecks, penalty-kill minutes, speed on the wall out of the bottom six.
Lorentz put up 18 points in 71 games last season, adding two shorthanded goals for a Toronto team starving for secondary scoring.
Duhaime, by comparison, managed only nine points in 82 games last year. A quiet season by any measure.
Somebody's ice time shrinks here. Why invest in a near mirror image when the fourth line already had an answer?
Why the Leafs' brutal finish puts every bottom-six job in danger
Toronto finished 32-36-14 last season, good for 78 points and a minus-46 goal differential.
The finish got uglier before it ended. Toronto dropped seven straight to close the year, including a 1-3 loss at Ottawa on April 15.
That kind of collapse forces change, and change up front is exactly what's squeezing a fourth-line veteran like Lorentz.
Over his final 10 games, Lorentz posted just three points and sat at a minus-4. Not the stretch that locks up a job.
Camp battles like this rarely get settled on paper. They get settled in exhibition games nobody outside the room is watching closely.
Signing a near duplicate of a player already on the roster is a strange way to build speed depth.
It's like buying a spare tire the exact same size as the one already sitting in the trunk.
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Lorentz says he's thrilled with how the offseason went. But thrilled and secure aren't the same thing in a Toronto room that just got a lot more crowded up front.
Should the Maple Leafs trade Steven Lorentz if Brandon Duhaime wins the roster battle?
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