San Jose Sharks prospect Ivar Stenberg wins 2026 Elite Prospects Award
Fresh off being selected second overall in the 2026 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks, Ivar Stenberg is the 2026 winner of the Elite Prospects award.
Presented annually since 2013 by Hockeysverige.se in collaboration with Elite Prospects, the award honours the best-performing junior player in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL).
After Stenberg's dominant season in Frölunda, there was little debate about who deserved this year's honours the most. 16 out of 19 voters had the star winger as the number one ranked prospect on their ballots, and he received 92 out of 95 possible points in the voting.
“This has been an awesome season where I've learned a lot,” Stenberg said of his early-season expectations for his NHL draft season. “This was above my expectations. I expected to try and make the lineup in every game. It was a little more than that, and I'm really happy it turned out the way it did.”
Hockeysverige.se presented the award to the 18-year-old during the NHL Draft weekend in Buffalo, where he was surprised by his older brother Otto (St. Louis Blues prospect) and younger brother Knut (2027 NHL Draft eligible).
“[Receiving the Elite Prospects Award is] a great honour. This is great. It's very big to have your name alongside them,” Stenberg said when asked about sharing the award with previous winners like Swedish NHL players Elias Pettersson, William Karlsson, Leo Carlsson, and Simon Edvinsson.
For the full interview and video presentation, visit Hockeysverige.se's website here.
Elite Prospects Award Previous Winners (Men's)
2013: William Karlsson (HV71)
2014: Alexander Wennberg (Frölunda)
2015: Axel Holmström (Skellefteå)
2016: Gustav Forsling (Linköping)
2017: Joel Eriksson Ek (Färjestad)
2018: Elias Pettersson (Växjö)
2019: Emil Bemström (Djurgården)
2020: Nils Lundkvist (Luleå)
2021: Moritz Seider (Rögle)
2022: Simon Edvinsson (Frölunda)
2023: Leo Carlsson (Örebro)
2024: Jonathan Lekkerimäki (Örebro)
2025: Axel Sandin-Pellikka (Skellefteå)
Elite Prospects Award Voting Jury
Johan Nilsson, EliteProspects.com
Peter Sibner, EliteProspects.com
Lassi Alanen, EliteProspects.com
Erik Ohlsson, EliteProspects.com
Magnus Hävelid, Swedish National Junior U20 Team Head Coach
Johan Rosén, Swedish National Junior U18 Team Head Coach
Uffe Bodin, Hockeysverige.se
Jimmy Hamrin, Hockeysverige.se
Martin Jansson, Hockeysverige.se
Viktor Jansson, Hockeysverige.se
Robin Olausson, hockeysverige.se
Simon Eld, Hockeysverige.se
Elias Johansson, hockeysverige.se
Ronnie Rönnkvist, Hockeysverige.se
Rasmus Kågström, Hockeysverige.se
Konrad Grönlund, Hockeysverige.se
Frida Bostedt, Hockeysverige.se
Lukas Stenström, Hockeysverige.se
Måns Karlsson, Hockeysverige.se