Ranking the Best Landing Spots for Ivar Stenberg in the 2026 NHL Draft

With the NHL announcing that the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery will be taking place on Tuesday, May 5, excitement for the coming draft is at an all time high. This draft doesn’t have a clear top-prospect, with no Macklin Celebrini or Matthew Schaefer in sight. However, there are at least three or four prospects who have placed themselves really well to be drafted early this year. 

Typically, I do an article like this for only the top prospect each year (with guys like Connor Bedard and Celebrini), but since there’s a small handful of guys who could go first overall, I thought I’d do articles for each of them. 

First we did Gavin McKenna, who is probably the favourite to go first this year, so let’s take on his main challenger in this piece, Ivar Stenberg. Stenberg is a Swedish winger whose name you definitely heard if you watched any of the 2026 World Junior Championship back in December and January. 

Stenberg is a dynamic offensive player who has the skill to beat defenders, the shot to beat goalies cleanly, and the defensive game to earn a coach’s trust. He drives offence really well for an 18-year-old, and looked the part of a much more mature player in the SHL this season where he scored a phenomenal 33 points in 43 professional games at age 18. That number surpassed the draft year marks of recent high draft picks like Leo Carlsson and Anton Frondell, and led all U20 players this season.

While his value would be higher if he were a bit taller or played center, Stenberg’s value is enormous as a play driving winger who is responsible in all three zones and creates a ton for himself and his teammates. Stenberg projects as a first line winger who is trustworthy in all situations. He is more likely to be an impactful NHL player next season than McKenna, though I think his ceiling is just a bit lower.

Now, on to the rankings. I will be ranking the NHL’s 11 worst teams from the 2025-26 season, as they are the only ones with a chance at landing the first overall selection. The NHL’s Draft Lottery rules dictate that a team can only jump up a maximum of 10 spots meaning just 11 teams have any hopes of winning the right to draft first. Let me be very clear, there are no bad options here, as every team in the bottom 11 this season has the potential for greatness with the addition of an excellent player like Stenberg.

I’ll be basing these rankings on a few factors, including how likely the team is to compete in the near future, how big of a role is available, and any other unique factors. 

Without further ado, let’s take a look at which NHL teams would make for the very best landing spots for Ivar Stenberg.

11. New York Rangers – 11.5%

There are a couple of good young players in the New York Rangers’ system, and they employ one of the best goaltenders in the world in Igor Shesterkin, but the Rangers feel like the Winnipeg Jets but with worse vibes. Trading for JT Miller, who was infamous for the locker-room struggles he contributed to in Vancouver and then quickly naming him captain was a bold move, and I don’t think that’s an environment I’d want to touch if I were Stenberg.

10. Nashville Predators – 3.5%

The Nashville Predators nearly made the playoffs this season, and one could argue that Stenberg’s addition to the team might be enough to make them more than a bubble playoff team. I’m not arguing that but someone could, I guess. The Predators feel like a team with very little in the way of a future. They’ve got two great young players in Matthew Wood and Brady Martin, but not much past that. Juuse Saros has had a difficult couple of years in a row now and I don’t think this is a team well positioned for success in the short or long term.

9. Calgary Flames – 9.5%

If Stenberg is worried about missing the snowy weather of Sweden when he leaves for the NHL, maybe Calgary is the right home. They’ve got a brand new arena (which includes a practice rink among other amenities) opening in just over a year as well which never hurts. On the ice, however, the Flames are a long way from any kind of sustainable success.

Matvei Gridin’s development has been exciting, but Zayne Parekh’s rookie year was . . . disappointing. Adding Stenberg would be the first major step for the Flames in what will likely be a several year process of rebuilding.

8. St. Louis Blues – 3%

The St. Louis Blues are a strange team, with a good amount of young talent, some solid veterans, and some of the most unpredictable stretches of play in the league. They’ll drive their fans to “boos” one month and then rattle off enough wins the next to feasibly jump back in the playoff race. Maybe Stenberg’s shockingly mature presence in the top-six would be enough to settle the team’s offence a bit and let them play to their true talent level, but there are many issues with the team defensively that will take time and clever manipulating. 

7. Seattle Kraken – 7.5%

After Vegas blew away all expectations of what an NHL expansion team could be, the Seattle Kraken have brought hopes back down to Earth. The Kraken have been a mushy middle team at best since joining the league, and have yet to add (through the draft, trades, or free agency) a true superstar player. While Stenberg would most likely be marketed as a franchise saviour in Seattle, the pressure still wouldn’t be all that high, and he would have some good young players to develop alongside like Berkly Catton and Jake O’Brien.

6. Vancouver Canucks – 25.5%

The 2025-26 Vancouver Canucks were a very bad team with roster construction issues, poor injury luck, and some rancid vibes that led to the trade of Quinn Hughes, their best player. Despite it all, I do believe they were worse than the sum of their parts this season. By no means do I think they’ll be meaningfully better next season, but they’ve found rock bottom and the only direction from here is up. Zeev Buium has the potential to be a cornerstone player on the back-end, and some combination of Elias Pettersson, Marco Rossi, and Filip Chytil down the middle would provide Stenberg with some good players to rely on as he develops in the NHL.

5. Toronto Maple Leafs – 8.5%

Considering how well Stenberg performed in the SHL in his draft year, I think he could be a reasonably impactful player in the NHL as a rookie next season. That means teams who should be good but are instead in the draft lottery are going to make a bit of a run here on this list. The Toronto Maple Leafs were about as dysfunctional as it gets this season, but the reason they rank so much higher here than a team like the Rangers is that they have two of the league’s best offensive players in Auston Matthews and William Nylander. Stenberg won’t replace Mitch Marner’s two way impacts outright, but he may give them just enough juice to help them be a real playoff threat in the Atlantic Division again next season.

4. Winnipeg Jets – 6.5%

The Winnipeg Jets weren’t supposed to be here this season. Their 116 points in the 2024-25 season led the league and then they dropped all the way to 82 points, a 34-point decrease. The Jets’ biggest issue was offensive depth, with the departure of Nikolaj Ehlers leaving them with few options. They often loaded their top line up with Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor (who combined for a staggering 195 points this season), and were left with a second line that struggled to create anything. Enter Ivar Stenberg. Stenberg would go a long way in transforming Winnipeg’s top-six, and could help them eventually split up their two superstars in favour of a more balanced forward group.

3. Florida Panthers – 6%

Prior to missing the playoffs this year, the Florida Panthers had made the postseason in six consecutive seasons, made it to the Stanley Cup Final three consecutive times, and won it all twice in a row. Even a team as good as the Panthers is going to miss the playoffs with bad goaltending, and significant injuries to their two best forwards (including the whole season from Alexander Barkov, their best player). With a healthier season and some creative problem solving in net, the Panthers are very likely to be a playoff team next season, and one to be feared regardless of where they seed. Stenberg would immediately improve their forward depth and give them a huge piece for the future. 

2. Chicago Blackhawks – 13.5%

The Chicago Blackhawks would be a great spot for Stenberg, regardless of what position Connor Bedard ends up playing for most of his career. The Blackhawks have amassed an impressive young talent pool, with recent additions like Anton Frondell and Roman Kantserov looking like future stars and a goaltender in Spencer Knight who looks like a legitmate starter in the NHL.

Where the Blackhawks have struggled is with turning an elite prospect pool into an elite NHL team, and Stenberg would quickly hold up his end of that bargain for Chicago.

1. San Jose Sharks – 5%

Obviously the chances of this happening are relatively slim, but the New York Islanders won the Draft Lottery last year with a 3.5% chance so anything can happen. If the Sharks did land Stenberg, they would have yet another high-end winger to pair with one of Macklin Celebrini or Michael Misa. With no offense to Misa, the Sharks rank at the top of this list because of Celebrini. His emergence as a superstar this season was one of the best stories in the NHL, and the Sharks appear to be close to playoff contention multiple years before anyone expected that of them. Stenberg would have a clear top-six role in sight next season, and could grow with the Sharks’ elite core as they try to build a dynasty.