Meet Ivar Sternberg, the players the Maple Leafs could draft with the No. 1 pick besides Gavin McKenna originally appeared on The Sporting News. Click here to add Sports News as your go-to source.
No one in Toronto really expected to have this discussion.
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But then the Maple Leafs won the NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday night, and everything changed. Now it’s time to talk about Gavin McKenna – but everyone knows a lot about the young Canadian talent. Now is also the time to talk about that little known man, Ivar Sternberg.
If there’s one player who could surpass McKenna and become the No. 1 pick in the draft, it’s Sternberg.
McKenna is still probably the favorite, especially now that Toronto has earned the spot.
But it’s also worth getting to know Sternberg. He can factor in.
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Who is Ivar Sternberg?
Sternberg is a young Swedish winger who shoots with his left foot and can play out wide.
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler recently ranked draft prospects and had two players in his “first tier”: McKenna and Sternberg.
In the SHL this season, Sternberg scored 33 points in 43 games, which is almost the highest score achieved by a player of his age in the SHL.
“He also helped the team win the Champions Hockey League championship this year and had a very strong performance in the SHL playoffs last year, becoming just the third player in history to score in the SHL playoffs in a draft-minus one season (after Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Hedman) and tallying six points in 12 games (tied for the most points by a U18 skater in history),” Wheeler wrote. “His season is not over yet as he is on trial for the Swedish men’s world team and has performed well in the first two games (two goals and three assists).”
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Sternberg does a lot of things well, and maybe there are some little things he has a chance to do better than McKenna.
“For me, though, Steinberg’s greatest tools have always been his wall game and his stick power,” Wheeler wrote. “He’s not very big, but he’s very, very powerful with the puck. He can stay on the puck, win a lot of battles along the boards with his powerful stick lift, and find the puck along the wall with his blade. He has an uncanny ability to keep and protect in the offensive zone. Protecting the puck from and through contact. This ability also helps him create a lot of penalties. He is also fearless in staying calm under pressure and making plays in tight coverage (including as the last man back to the blue line in the offensive zone).
Wheeler wrote, “Sternberg projects as a first-line tight end.”
Of course, so does McKenna.
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The key decision for the Maple Leafs isn’t whether one of these guys is good enough, but which one they think can develop into the biggest superstar. They got the No. 1 pick in a good year because of it. They have to get things done.