BUFFALO, N.Y. — There tends to be a gap in enthusiasm between the way a hockey player speaks about himself and the way others speak about him. In the case of Ivar Stenberg, that gulf is unusually pronounced.
Sure, the 18-year-old Swede was a bit on the back blade, speaking English to reporters at the NHL Scouting Combine in early June. Still, the young man was exceptionally measured when answering an assortment of questions about his game and the impressive campaign he just put together as a draft-eligible player in Sweden’s top league. “Some bad games, some good games, but overall, it [was] a good season,” Stenberg said, in what was actually one of his more expansive answers.
The winger is certainly not prone to self-promotion, but those closest to him would tell you his portfolio doesn’t require much of a sales pitch. Viggo Björck — the more gregarious half of a tight friendship — just laughed out loud when asked for a scouting report on Stenberg’s skillset, basically saying: “Nothing you guys don’t already know.”
In other words, if you’ve seen this guy play at all, you’ve surely witnessed the magic.
Björck understands full well what Stenberg can do, having lined up against him in the Swedish Hockey League and alongside his buddy at both the junior and senior versions of the world championship in 2026. But even those who’ve done most of their watching from afar, like Canadian defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, have come away no less impressed. “When he had that goal in the men’s worlds where he cuts back, cuts back again and rips it far side, that’s pretty special,” said Verhoeff, a projected top-10 pick himself.
The goal in question came during Sweden’s final preliminary contest in late May. With his team clinging to a 2-1 advantage over Slovakia midway through the game, Stenberg picked up a loose puck at his own blueline and raced up ice. After crossing into the Slovak zone, he manoeuvred to the middle of the sheet, then sliced sharply back against his momentum in the high slot. As Stenberg whipped the puck home in one motion, Slovak defenceman Frantisek Gajdos — juked right off his skate blades — slid helplessly along the ice, while the stick he lost in the process drifted toward the opposite corner. It was the kind of play — at a tournament populated by some of the best pros in hockey — that caught not just Verhoeff’s attention, but that of the entire hockey world.
The buzz around Stenberg has been building for more than a year and kicked into overdrive in the past six months as he asserted himself against top-level, grown-man competition in Sweden and at that world championship in Switzerland. Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala wound up giving Stenberg the No. 1 slot in his final ranking for Friday’s 2026 NHL Draft. Even if Stenberg has to wait a team or two to hear his name called in Buffalo, the club that lands him will be getting one outstanding left winger. Because, for every eye-popping play this star-in-waiting makes, there are numerous other things he does on the ice that help win hockey games.
The three highest picks from Frölunda’s senior team in the history of the draft are Rasmus Dahlin (first overall in 2018), Lucas Raymond (fourth overall in 2020) and Fredrik Sjöström (11th overall in 2001). Today, the 43-year-old Sjöström is Frölunda’s GM and while he acknowledges it’s only natural — as two talented wingers — to compare Stenberg and Raymond, the former didn’t immediately create huge buzz when he landed at the club as a young teen the way some of his predecessors did.
“He was pretty small at the start,” says Sjöström, who played nearly 500 NHL games for Toronto, the Rangers, Calgary and the Phoenix Coyotes. “Maybe he didn’t stand out compared to a Rasmus Dahlin at that age. You could tell he was good, but he was pretty small.”
It was during his time with Frölunda’s U-18 club that Stenberg — now listed at six-feet tall — really began to shine. By 2024-25, he was tearing up the U-20 ranks and, as a 17-year-old, got himself promoted to the senior squad before Christmas. “He was still wearing the cage,” says veteran Frölunda defenceman Christian Folin with a chuckle.
While Stenberg’s age dictated the need for full-face protection, everything else he did on the ice belied his years. The team was mindful about how much responsibility it loaded on him, but Stenberg just kept showing he was capable of handling more. “Frölunda wanted to almost keep him back a little bit,” says Folin, a 35-year-old who played nearly 250 NHL games. “They didn’t want to expose him too early to the pro team. But he was so good in practice that they didn’t really have a choice. You saw that early in practice; like, he would dominate. He would come in and he would get the puck and he would dominate and do things that… I don’t know, he was on a different level. I haven’t seen that kind of talent from [a guy that young] in Frölunda.”
Good as Stenberg was, points were hard to come by early on and he wound up finishing with just one goal and two assists in 25 outings. “You could tell he had a lot of upside, a lot of skill,” says Sjöström. “But the points weren’t coming.”
Whatever his stat line read, Stenberg had done enough heading into the 2025 playoffs to keep a spot in the lineup. When injuries created a bigger opportunity, he walked right through the door. In a dozen post-season outings, he found the net three times and kicked in three more assists. “He did so well for us as a 17-year-old,” Sjöström says.
That showing officially sounded the siren, letting everyone know Stenberg would be a player to watch for the very top of the 2026 draft. Adam Andersson, a big Swedish winger who could go in the second round, has long admired his countryman’s game. “He’s a very mature guy on the ice,” says Andersson, using insight gained from playing against Stenberg over the years. “Takes risks, but not [big] risks. He’s an incredible player. Fearless on the ice.”
Certainly Stenberg’s decision-making draws plaudits from friend and foe. Sjöström says the youngster just seems to always sense where everybody is on the ice and Folin marvels at the way Stenberg can dictate the terms of the game. “The balance [he has] and being able to shield the puck, control the puck, control the pace of play,” Folin says. “That’s a lot of what you saw [from him] in the world championship; he speeds up the play, then he can also slow it down and make passes.”
In terms of playing against Stenberg, American defenceman Chase Reid did just that at the WJC this past holiday season and was blown away. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody have the IQ that guy does,” says Reid, a likely top-three pick himself. “Off the rush, he lays pucks into areas that most guys would never see. And he’s really good at slipping your triangle [the three points created by a defenceman’s skates and stick while defending].”
The skill Stenberg possesses is the type of thing you expect from such a heralded player. But his path through Frölunda — playing in a pro league where coaches demand two-way accountability — has also helped sculpt him into a player who, when he’s done developing, could thrive in every aspect of the game. And for a kid whose sole calling card could be embarrassing opponents with his wicked mitts, Stenberg has embraced learning the game’s finer points.
“When he came up, we could tell he’s a super-skilled guy, but he bought into the team game and did what he had to do to get in the lineup,” Folin says. “It’s fun to see a guy with that kind of skill who does the work; who backchecks hard. When he loses the puck, he makes sure he gets it back. When he would come back, he would block shots, he would finish a hit, he’d be up in your face.”
Folin, of course, knows Stenberg better than most, having shared a room on the road with him for more than a season. He says, once the reserved young man gets comfortable, his personality comes shining through. “When you get to know him, he blossoms into a fantastic person.”
One of the times you can bet Stenberg is at ease is hanging around his older brother, Otto. The latter was a first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2023 and played 32 games as an NHL rookie this past season. Stenberg plans to play as much golf as he can with Otto this off-season, but will obviously spend a lot of time focussing on what he can do to make the jump to the NHL in the fall. “Work on small details; stronger, faster, shoot a little bit more,” he says.
Regardless of your background, cracking the world’s top league is always an enormous challenge for a teenager. There’s every chance Stenberg could find himself back at Frölunda next year, continuing to refine his game against seasoned pros. However, there’s also no doubt — depending on where he lands — Stenberg is going to get a long look in an NHL camp come September. In the past, whenever the level has gone up, the kid has responded.
“He matches that and he excels above it,” Folin says. “He gets a new challenge, he accepts the challenge and he [basically] crushes it.”
When that’s the case, there’s nothing much else that needs to be said.