Jim Lorentz

Jim Lorentz was born in 1947 and lived in Waterloo as a youth. He played minor hockey, including on the Sutherland Cup winning Waterloo Siskins in 1964. At 17 years of age he left home to play Junior “A” hockey for the Niagara Falls Flyers for three seasons, playing on the Memorial Cup winning team in 1965.

Lorentz turned professional with the Oklahoma City Blazers, winning the Central Hockey League rookie of the year honours in 1966-67 and league MVP the following season.

In 1968-69, Lorentz joined the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and was a member of the 1970 Stanley Cup Championship team. In ensuing years he was traded and played for the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres where he established himself as a bona-fide NHLer and retired from the Sabres following the 1977-78 season. His ten year career in the NHL included more than 700 regular-season and play-off games where he amassed more than 400 points in scoring. Lorentz was twice the winner of the Unsung Hero award with the Buffalo Sabres.

Lorentz was inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 2011. Following his retirement as a player, Lorentz became a sports telecaster, joining the Buffalo Sabres broadcast team for 27 years. He has recently completed a book on Atlantic salmon fishing, and has won several writing awards for magazine stories and articles about fly fishing.

Photo by Robert Shaver.