Photo Credit: Frölunda HC
Otto Stenberg is a 2023 NHL Draft eligible prospect and plays in the Frölunda system. He grew up in Stenungsund, Sweden and played for the local U16 and J18 teams before joining Frölunda.
Otto’s father, David had played Swedish division two hockey in the early 2000’s. His brothers are also actively playing. Ivar plays in the Frölunda system and Knut recently played for the Stenungsund U16 club.
This season, Stenberg was nearly a player per game in J20 play, made his SHL debut and represented Sweden on the international stage at multiple tournaments including Hlinka Gretzky and the U18s.
Player Profile
D.O.B – May 29, 2005
Nationality – Sweden
Draft Eligibility – 2023
Height –5’11″
Weight –181 lbs
Position – Forward
Handedness – Left
Stenberg’s Style of Play
Offense
Stenberg does a good job of cutting in on the forecheck to get possession of the puck, but needs to leverage his upper body strength a bit more when fighting against pressure to his backside once he has possession. He needs to use that upper body strength to push into attackers, so that way he can create some space for himself.
In SHL play, I noticed that Stenberg did a solid job of providing support for his teammates who were trapped in the corners. Stenberg used his crossovers nicely to put himself into position to support teammates with an outlet passing lane.
Off the rush, should the attack force Stenberg into low danger, he does a good job of adapting and running the cycle. While along the boards, should he find a teammate nearby but the attacker in front of Stenberg is shadowing the teammates movements to take away the passing lane, he won’t hesitate to pass the puck off the boards to a teammate along the boards. But, Stenberg is ultimately looking for the optimal passing lane to the low slot. If he can spot a lane, he won’t hesitate to use his lateral speed to get him to the desired passing lane. Stenberg also does a good job at timing his teammates routes to the low slot and hitting them in stride with a pass.
When working the puck behind the red line, should pressure close in on him and he has limited space to work with, he’ll pass above / under the triangle (stick shaft of the attacker) to get the puck to a teammate with open space in front of them.
But, I did notice that he was a bit slower with his processing at the SHL level when pressure intensified. He needs to be quicker with his problem solving at the SHL level. If not, he’ll struggle to move the puck in tight pressured situations. While his problem solving is still in development at the SHL level, he’s been able to problem solve with consistent success at the J20 and J18 levels. Stenberg is just getting used to the SHL pace.
Stenberg is equipped with excellent stick-handling and mobility that he can rely on to get around danger at open ice. In addition, he does a great job of securing the puck under the pressure and relies on his reach to extend the puck out. The combination has led to some fun highlight reel clips throughout this past season. For instance, check out this clip in which he stick-handled around two attackers after entering into the offensive zone. He stick-handled out of pressure and opened up a shooting lane.
Throughout this season, Stenberg capitalized off of rebounds, but he also did a good job of putting himself in back door shooting lanes to draw one-timer opportunities. If Stenberg spots a teammate looking to distribute the puck and struggling to find a lane due to traffic, Stenberg will look to skate into open space to create the passing lane. But, if Stenberg can’t put a clean shot on net or a path to net-front, he’ll look to quickly re-distribute.
In addition to capitalizing off of rebounds and back door shots, he produced nicely off the rush as well and used puck manipulation at net-front to draw top shelf shooting lanes.
While he does score one-timer back door goals, he struggles with his one-timers from distance. Stenberg isn’t leaning forward into his shot and thus he isn’t netting the power he needs. He also needs to work on shot angling when trying shots from range. Stenberg won’t align his stick blade to the net from range and that forces his shots to go wide towards the corner.
Defense
Stenberg implements quality pressure at the defensive zone blue line and will utilize an active stick when defending in the neutral zone to trap attackers. If the attackers are working on the puck along the boards, he will drop back to provide tight backcheck pressure and keeps tight positioning on attackers. Stenberg keeps his head on a swivel to identify potential passing lanes that the attackers might utilize and steps into them to negate the threat.
Stenberg does a good job of providing outlet passing lanes and will use his crossovers to put himself into position to create said passing lane. Once he has control of the puck, he will look to break out of the zone with the puck on his stick.
In SHL play, if pressure creeps up, sometimes he struggles to decide when is the moment to use his stick-handling or pass and gets trapped.
Transitional Play
Stenberg does a good job of quickly reacting to oppositional puck movement in the neutral zone and has the crossover speed to shift from side to side in order to get into position. Once in position, he looks to use an active stick to take away space and force the attacker to puck the puck along the boards. Not only does Stenberg use his active stick to trap attackers, but he will also extend out his stick blade when in range of a vulnerable attacker who has possession of the puck. He will pickpocket, quickly generate speed and create an odd man rush / breakaway opportunity. Check out this goal from November that Stenberg scored off the rush after pickpocketing in the neutral zone.
When his teammates have control of the puck in the neutral zone, Stenberg stays aligned laterally to them to give them a passing option.
Stenberg knows not to force the puck into tight pressured areas off the rush and he changes up how he will escape pressure for each sequence. He is a problem solver in transition and keeps you guessing. In some situations, he will keep pivoting left and right to lose pressure and then quickly he will complete a pass to an open defenseman. You will also see Stenberg fall back into the defensive zone, button hook and then complete a stretch pass to an open teammate in the neutral zone. Check out the clip below from a game against HV71 U20 in late February in which he fell back to re-group and completed a stretch pass that led to a goal off the rush.
Skating
When moving up the ice, Stenberg is largely dependent on crossovers for speed. He doesn’t have a power stride, but that hasn’t slowed down Stenberg in SHL play. Stenberg’s crossovers have manufactured the speed he needs to drive the rush, shift east-west as he looks to skate towards a passing lane to use and create the separation that he needs after pivoting away from pressure. Over the next season or so I’d like to see Stenberg try to widen his stride as it will only increase his speed and his upside.
Projection
Otto Stenberg has a lot of excellent tools in his arsenal that make him a second line upside day 1 NHL Draft target. He’s shifty, mobile and has excellent stick-handling that he’ll use to get out of tight jams at centered ice. If he runs out of room and simply can’t navigate out with his footwork or handling, he makes use of whatever passing lane he has and more than often at the SHL level that meant passing underneath the stick of the attacker. When he has the puck on his stick, he’ll rely on his crossovers to create the separation to go one-on-one with the goaltender at net-front. If he simply can’t pull away from pressure, he’ll look to pepper the slot with passes. In transition, he won’t force the puck into dodgy situations and will button hook. Stenberg will then identify a secondary lane and take advantage.
Latest Update
June 6, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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