NHLer Steve Lorentz brings Stanley Cup home to Waterloo Thursday

Waterloo native Steve Lorentz is bringing home the Stanley Cup.

Steven Lorentz who plays centre for the Florida Panthers, started his hockey career with the Waterloo Minor Hockey League at the age of five. He would go on to play for the Waterloo Wolves and Kitchener-Waterloo Siskins.

The Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the NHL final in a dramatic comeback after losing three straight games. The win gave the Panthers their first-ever Stanley Cup victory.

His former coach Bob Hergott told CBC K-W that he and the other coaches knew early on Lorentz was going places.

"We knew when he was seven years old that he was above most anyone around the city," said Hergott.

"He was probably one of the top players in the Alliance League that we played in and he had a great outlook and a great work ethic which carried him, I think, to where he is today."

Hergott says he coached Lorentz through hockey fundamentals up to the age of 15.

"As a coach who coached him for several years in his younger years, we don't often get to see our players succeed to the highest levels," said Hergott.

"To see Steve reach the NHL was a milestone in itself. To watch him play and see him have results on the ice was amazing."

Hergott, who is now the director of Triple A and Double A hockey for Waterloo Minor Hockey, says over his 40 years of volunteering he has met "a lot of great young men who have grown up into great men over the years that have not made it far in hockey, but have turned their lives into something."

The cup will be on display to the public at RIM Park, in the Forbes Room between 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fans will have the opportunity to meet Steven Lorentz and take photos of the Stanley Cup.

A news release from the City of