Ivar Stenberg didn’t need much time in the NHL to figure out where he wanted to be, and just as importantly, where he didn’t.
The Sharks winger said this week that Toronto never felt like the right fit during the draft process, even though he was viewed by most as one of the top two players available in June.
“I was pretty sure I would not go first overall,” Stenberg told Bay Area News Group earlier this week. “I didn’t have good meetings with Toronto and didn’t feel like it was the team for me.”
Toronto, of course, went with Penn State forward Gavin McKenna at No. 1 overall after winning the draft lottery a month earlier. San Jose followed by taking Stenberg at No. 2, a pick the Sharks also landed through the lottery.
“I had met with (the Leafs) during the year, but I don’t know,” Stenberg said. “They wanted another guy, and I accept that. But I’m super happy I’m with the Sharks.”
That choice is already looking comfortable for the 19-year-old Swede. Through seven games, Stenberg is tied for second among NHL rookies in scoring with six points, and he’s quickly carved out a spot for himself in San Jose’s lineup.
McKenna, meanwhile, is right behind him with five points in nine games, setting up the first NHL meeting between the two on Monday night when the Sharks visit the Leafs at Scotiabank Arena to wrap up a six-game road trip. The two had already crossed paths once before in a World Junior Championship pre-tournament game last December, and Stenberg said he also ran into McKenna at the combine and draft.
“He’s a good guy, really good on the ice, too.”
Stenberg had a sense for where the draft was heading long before his name was called. Based on his conversations with Toronto, he wasn’t surprised by how things played out.
“You kind of feel when a team wants you or not, or how interested they are,” Stenberg said. “You get a feeling, and I think that feeling was pretty (accurate).”
For San Jose, Stenberg has given plenty of reasons for optimism. He scored his second goal of the season on Saturday against Detroit, cashing in on the power play off assists from Alexander Wennberg and Macklin Celebini to put the Sharks ahead 3-1 early in the third period. He also picked up a helper on Dmitry Orlov’s first-period power-play goal, giving him the second multi-point game of his NHL career.
But the Sharks couldn’t finish the job. Detroit scored at even strength through Emmitt Finnie at the 5:00 mark of the third, then Alex DeBrincat tied it with 1:33 left after the Red Wings pulled their goalie. San Jose went on to lose 4-3 in a shootout.
The loss fit a pattern that has haunted the Sharks this season. They are 4-3-1, but they’ve now coughed up two-goal third-period leads four times in eight games, including Saturday’s collapse.
Defenseman Dmitry Orlov took responsibility afterward, saying he should have done a better job on the sequence that led to Finnie’s goal.
“We probably lost that game because of me,” Orlov said Saturday. “The puck was rolling, and I wasn’t sure if I should touch it or not - it can go anywhere off my stick. I needed to be closer to him and not even give him a chance at the puck.”
The Sharks had their chances to salvage it in overtime, but they couldn’t score on the power play, and then Stenberg, Celebrini and Will Smith all came up empty in the shootout against John Gibson. Lucas Raymond scored the lone Detroit shootout goal.
“We had chances, but there were a couple rolling pucks and a couple missed shots that we would really like back,” Celebrini said of the overtime power play. “That was true throughout the game. We didn’t finish chances.”
Stenberg’s early run in the league has also brought him face to face with players he grew up watching, including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl when San Jose played Edmonton last Saturday at SAP Center. He was lined up on the wing with Wennberg in a matchup-heavy role during 5-on-5 play.
“It still feels unrealistic,” Stenberg said. “Somebody at home (in Sweden) texted me and was like, ‘How was it?’
I was like, “Yeah, it was a fun game, but when you’re out and trying to win hockey games, you don’t think about it too much. But when you see McDavid come with his speed, it’s pretty cool to see.
“But that stuff is becoming more normal, like every day, especially when you see guys in this room.”
He says he’s settled in with the Sharks and believes he’s exactly where he should be.
“I like all the guys, young team,” Stenberg said. “Even if it’s hard speaking English, I still believe that in some months we’re going to have a lot of fun. A good team on the way up, getting better every year, and we have some really good players here.”
In Other News...
Sharks Let Another Two-Goal Lead Slip Away In Brutal Loss
Another night, another lesson in closing time for the Sharks, who saw a two-goal edge disappear in the third period before falling 4-3 to the Detroit Red Wings in a shootout. San Jose has spent much of this season finding ways to make multi-goal leads interesting, but there was no escape this time after a game that looked headed toward a much-needed win drifted into overtime and beyond.
The Sharks still had chances to salvage it, but Will Smith, Macklin Celebrini and Ivar Stenberg were all stopped in the shootout, leaving Alex Nedeljkovic in a tough spot against Detroit's final answer. For a team that has managed to survive similar swings earlier this season, the concern now is less about the one result than the pattern that keeps putting them in danger whenever they get ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Waste Another Strong Effort With A Finish Fans Know Too Well
The Sharks went into Little Caesars Arena and got the kind of push that usually makes a road night feel promising. Dmitry Orlov, Macklin Celebrini and Ivar Stenberg all scored, and San Jose spent much of the game trading blows with the Detroit Red Wings in a matchup that had enough energy to suggest this one might finally tilt the other way.
Instead, the finish landed in familiar territory for a club still searching for a cleaner close. San Jose carried a lead late, only to see Detroit equalize and push the game into a shootout, where the Sharks could not convert a strong performance into two points. For a team trying to build something from nights like this, the result was another reminder that the last few minutes remain the hardest part to solve. [Read more 🡒]
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Ryan Warsofsky is still operating in the space where development and results have to coexist, and that balance is getting tougher to ignore as the roster gets stronger. The question now is not just whether the Sharks are better, but whether the current coach is the right one to guide them once the rebuild gives way to something more ambitious. If the organization does decide to look elsewhere, Bruce Cassidy is one of the names that has already begun to surface in the background. [Read more 🡒]