Ivar Stenberg has already impressed for the Sharks
The San Jose Sharks got some good luck during the NHL draft lottery, gaining the opportunity to make a selection at No. 2 overall to add to an already-impressive core of young talent.
General manager Mike Grier and his staff landed on Swedish forward Ivar Stenberg, who has wasted no time in proving he’s ready to make an immediate impact at the NHL level. Stenberg notched a hat trick in a wildly impressive showing during a 10-0 preseason victory over the Anaheim Ducks, and he’s cruised through training camp and the preseason to a spot on the Sharks’ Opening Night roster.
Stenberg is currently slated to start the year on San Jose’s second line alongside Alex Wennberg and Collin Graf in a configuration that would give the Sharks a top-two pick from each of the last three NHL Drafts on their top three lines, with Macklin Celebrini and Michael Misa centering the first and third lines, respectively.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by J.D. Young from Locked on Sharks to discuss Stenberg’s preseason and what his rookie year could look like as San Jose looks to break through as a playoff team.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Another new name added to the mix is Ivar Stenberg. How’s he looked in camp; what have been your early impressions of the second overall pick from this last year’s draft?
J.D. Young: He looks ready to go. He was second on the team in preseason scoring. I know it’s preseason, grain of salt, etc. He had a hat trick earlier this season. He has looked every bit the part, and the Sharks have kind of split him between Michael Misa at times, and then they’ve also put him with Alex Wennberg. I really like the Wennberg pairing, to be honest, especially early on in the season here. Wennberg, you know exactly what you’re getting from him night in, night out… With Stenberg, I think it gives him a very solid center to kind of lean on here as he kind of wades through the beginning part of this season. We saw last year, Wennberg was at his best when he was paired with William Eklund, a playmaking, play-driving winger. Of course the Sharks trade Eklund to Ottawa this off-season, and here comes Ivar Stenberg who’s a playmaking, play-driving winger who can do a lot of the same things, and I think it’s going to put Stenberg in a position to succeed before he either jumps up and is playing with Misa… or eventually plays with Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below..
