Meet Ivar Sternberg, the one player the Maple Leafs could draft 1st besides Gavin McKenna

Meet Ivar Sternberg, the one player the Maple Leafs could draft 1st besides Gavin McKenna originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

No one in Toronto really expected to be having this discussion.

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 him as a young Canadian phenom. It's also time to talk about the guy less people know, Ivar Sternberg.

If there is one player who could upend McKenna and be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, it's Sternberg.

McKenna is still likely the favorite, especially now that Toronto won that spot.

But it's worth knowing Sternberg, too. He could factor into the picture.

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Who is Ivar Sternberg?

Sternberg is a young Swedish winger, a left-shot who can play on either side.

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler ranked draft prospects recently and had two players in his "Tier 1": McKenna and Sternberg.

In the SHL this season, Sternberg had 33 points in 43 games, which is about as high an output as a player of his age has ever done there.

"He also helped them to a Champions Hockey League title this year and had a really strong SHL playoffs last year, becoming just the third player ever to score in the SHL postseason in their draft-minus-one season (after Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Hedman), and registering six points in 12 games (tied for the most ever by a U18 skater)," Wheeler writes. "His season's not done yet, either, as he's auditioning for Sweden's men's worlds roster and had a great first two performance (two goals and three assists)."

Sternberg does a lot of things well, and it's maybe on some of the littler things that he has a chance to be better than McKenna.

"Stenberg’s biggest standout tool for me, though, has repeatedly been his wall play and strength on his stick," Wheeler writes. "He’s not big, but he’s very, very strong in hockey terms. He stays over pucks, wins a ton of battles along the boards with strong stick lifts and just finds pucks along the wall with his blade. He has an uncanny ability to hold and protect pucks against and through contact in the offensive zone. That ability also helps him draw a lot of penalties. He’s also fearlessly poised under pressure and makes plays under tight coverage in difficult spots (including one-on-one as the last man back at the offensive zone blue line)."

Wheeler writes that "Sternberg projects as a first-line winger."

So does McKenna, of course.

The key decision for the Maple Leafs will not be whether one of these guys is good enough, but rather which one they think can develop into the biggest superstar. They've got the No. 1 pick in a good year for it. They've just got to get it right.

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