Ivar Stenberg And His Brother Scored One Goal And Two Assists Each In Their First Season Against Swedish Men
The Sharks 25, No. 6. Otto Stenberg's second season at Frolunda was six points, and last season, three years after St. Louis drafted him in the first round, he split the year 32 games in the National Hockey League and 36 in the American. Ivar's second season at Frolunda was 33 points, and San Jose has four preseason games to decide whether that gap is the difference between the two paths.
Otto Stenberg played 23 games in the Swedish Hockey League for Frolunda in 2022-23 and scored one goal and two assists. He was 17, and St. Louis took him 25th overall the following June.
Ivar Stenberg played 25 games in the Swedish Hockey League for Frolunda in 2024-25 and scored one goal and two assists. He was 17.
Same club, same league, same age, same three points broken the same way. The league's own records carry both lines.
The year they separate#
Otto's second Frolunda season was 31 games, three goals, three assists. Six points.
Ivar's second Frolunda season was 43 games, 11 goals, 22 assists. Thirty three points, plus 10, six penalty minutes. He added four assists in six playoff games and 10 points in seven at the World Juniors. Elite Prospects ranks that regular season third among all draft-eligible seasons in the league's history, behind Daniel Sedin's and Henrik Sedin's in 1998-99. San Jose took him second overall in June. One season did all of that.
What Otto did next#
Three seasons after his own draft, Otto played 32 games for St. Louis in 2025-26 and 36 for Springfield in the American Hockey League. Ten points up, 17 down.
That is the ordinary path for a Swedish first-rounder out of Frolunda who is good and not finished, and the one San Jose is deciding whether Ivar skips. San Jose's fourth game is at St. Louis on October 8.
Ivar met reporters Friday. Felicia Keller of San Jose Hockey Now has him saying he arrived a week ago and has skated with Macklin Celebrini in captain's skates. Whether he is in Saturday's lineup is unknown outside the building.
What the wing costs#
William Eklund played all 78 of his games for San Jose last season and finished with 15 goals, 38 assists and 18:32 a night, at minus 31. He is in Ottawa. The two wingers signed to cover that are Mason Marchment at $6,750,000 a season through 2030-31 and Tyler Toffoli at $6,000,000 for two more years, per PuckPedia. A combined $12,750,000.
Stenberg is the in-house alternative, on the entry-level contract he signed in July. DailyFaceoff's July 4 projected lines, which predate the Celebrini extension and the Graf re-signing, put him on the third line with Alexander Wennberg and Kiefer Sherwood. Professor Hockey's August 28 opening-night power-play board puts him on the second unit and has projected him at roughly 50 points since July.
Nineteen days and four games#
San Jose played six preseason games in each of the last two seasons. It plays four this year, on September 20, 22, 24 and 26 against Anaheim and Vegas, per the league's own club schedules.
The Rookie Faceoff runs Saturday and Sunday at Tech CU Arena, 5 p.m. both days, against Los Angeles and Utah. The opener is Florida at San Jose on Thursday, October 1. Nineteen days, a third less exhibition hockey than this club gave itself in either of the last two Septembers, and a decision on a forward who turns 19 the day before the opener and has never played in North America.
The club's best case#
San Jose settles its wing in three weeks and pays almost nothing for it. Stenberg is good enough across four preseason games that the choice makes itself, he opens on a scoring line, and the club buys second-line scoring for a fraction of what it already owes at the same position.
The second half is not about him. A rookie who holds a top-six job lets San Jose use Toffoli where a 34-year-old fourth-option winger belongs, and lets the second power play run through Misa and Chernyshov rather than through seniority.
The club's worst case#
Not that he is bad. That San Jose spends the season deciding.
He is exempt from waivers, so sending him to the Barracuda costs nothing and can be undone any morning. A move that is free is a move that is easy to make twice. Professor Hockey said on September 1 that the roster is deep enough to healthy-scratch Stenberg and still run a very good top nine, and that he expects San Jose to send him down after two bad games rather than ride them out.
The club's own record says the same thing four times. Sam Dickinson did not dress for the 2025-26 opener and debuted in game two. Michael Misa did not dress for either of the first two, debuted in game three, and did not dress for six of San Jose's first 13. Igor Chernyshov did not play an NHL game until December 16. Will Smith, taken fourth overall the year before, did not dress for three of the club's first 11 in 2024-25. All of it is in the league's own game logs.
The cost is not the points Stenberg does not score in October. It is that a club seven straight seasons out of the playoffs spends the first month of an 84-game year auditioning the answer it drafted, while paying veteran money for what he was drafted to replace.
What to watch, Saturday and Sunday#
The first tell arrives inside 36 hours and it is not points.
San Jose plays twice in two days, and Curtis Pashelka reported on September 1 that whether Misa, Chernyshov and Stenberg play one or both was unknown. Two games is a club taking a live look. One, with the second off, is a club protecting a player it has decided about. Two lineup sheets, 24 hours apart.
Then October, where the number to count is games dressed, not points. Misa missed six of the first 13 and Smith three of the first 11. If Stenberg dresses for all of San Jose's first 13, this staff has done something with him it did not do with Misa, Smith or Dickinson. If he misses four or more, the Barracuda question is live by mid-November whatever the scoresheet says.
The stakes#
San Jose finished with 86 points and has missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons. The blue line was rebuilt in July, the goaltending is one man's workload, and the forward group's ceiling is Celebrini plus whichever of Misa, Smith, Chernyshov and Stenberg arrives next. The other three all missed games early that this staff could have dressed them for, and it was not wrong to hold them.
Stenberg is the one it has not decided about, the only one of the four whose first NHL game is still ahead of him. The next 19 days settle whether it comes this season or in 2027-28.
Previously in this series: No. 7, Jacob Trouba.
Sources: NHL player landing records and game logs for Ivar Stenberg, Otto Stenberg, William Eklund, Michael Misa, Igor Chernyshov, Sam Dickinson and Will Smith, and San Jose's club schedules for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27, all read 2026-09-12. Elite Prospects for the all-time draft-eligible Swedish Hockey League leaderboard. PuckPedia for cap hits and contract years. Felicia Keller, San Jose Hockey Now, September 11, 2026, for the Stenberg availability. Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News, September 1, 2026, for the Rookie Faceoff grid and roster. DailyFaceoff's July 4, 2026 projected lines. Professor Hockey, July 27, August 28 and September 1, 2026, for the point projection, power-play units and deployment read.
