Ivar Stenberg played every situation San Jose had in his first NHL exhibition
Stenberg led San Jose's forwards with 22:17 across all situations in the 2-1 shootout loss to Vegas. His debut included the top power-play unit, both overtime states and a shootout goal.
Ivar Stenberg is 18, San Jose drafted him second overall in 2026, and in his first NHL exhibition no San Jose forward played more five-on-five hockey than he did. He had 16:18 of the game's 55:30 at five-on-five in Tuesday's 2-1 shootout loss to Vegas, ahead of Filip Bystedt at 16:05, then Ethan Cardwell and Alexander Wennberg.
The assignments#
The NHL boxscore gives Stenberg 22:17 across all situations, including overtime, the most ice time of any San Jose forward. Every manpower split below is counted second by second from the NHL's shift charts, because the exhibition boxscore carries no official special-teams split. Removing overtime and the power play still leaves him first among San Jose forwards at five-on-five, ahead of Bystedt's 16:05.
Stenberg played five-on-five, five-on-four, three-on-three and four-on-three, then scored in the shootout. San Jose took no penalties, so there was no penalty kill for anybody to audition on. He spent 3:35 of the available 4:30 on the regulation five-on-four power play, on the top unit with Wennberg, Michael Misa, Igor Chernyshov and Luca Cagnoni. In overtime, Stenberg played 2:24 of the available 5:00.
The returns#
Stenberg supplied the primary assist on Misa's power-play goal in the 2-1 shootout loss at SAP Center. His four shots on goal tied Misa for the San Jose lead. The play-by-play divides Stenberg's shots into two at five-on-five, one at five-on-four and one at three-on-three.
Wennberg centred his line, with Collin Graf on the other wing. Of Stenberg's 16:18 at five-on-five, he shared 14:13 with Wennberg and 12:58 with Graf; those are overlapping partnerships, not minutes to add together. San Jose led attempts 17-12 with Stenberg on the ice, counting an attempt only when its timestamp fell strictly inside his shift. That is 58.6% of 29 attempts, with change-second events excluded.
There are attempt counts and distances for this exhibition, and no expected-goals model. The recorded distances also limit how much you can make of San Jose's territorial edge. The median distance for San Jose's 33 unblocked five-on-five attempts was 32.9 feet; Vegas's median across 32 was 29.2 feet.
Stenberg was on the ice for Alexander Holtz's even-strength equalizer and finished minus-1 in the official boxscore. Ryan Warsofsky said, "There's a two-second miscoverage there, and that's not on Stenny," as reported by Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now on Sept. 22. The coach's assessment accompanies a boxscore charging Stenberg, Wennberg, Graf, Nolan Allan and Jacob Trouba, five San Jose skaters, with minus-1.
The arguments against#
- The opponent is a substantial discount. Vegas's dressed lineup carried 184 NHL games from 2025-26 against San Jose's 536. Peng described Vegas's lineup as mostly AHL players. Only two Vegas players had reached 41 NHL games last season, against seven for San Jose.
- Nearly three times the NHL experience bought San Jose a 48-45 five-on-five attempt edge, 51.6% of 93 attempts. Vegas won the first-period count 18-10.
- One exhibition supplies 29 on-ice attempts for Stenberg. A favourable share can describe that evening without being sturdy enough to carry a season's expectations.
- His linemates had better shares by the same count. By five-on-five attempt share the line ranks Wennberg first, Graf second and Stenberg third. Wennberg was at 70.8% across 24 attempts; Graf was at 65.2% across 23 attempts.
Those limits leave the deployment itself as the firmer reason to be encouraged. Warsofsky kept assigning Stenberg work as the available jobs changed, including a regulation power-play workload of 3:35 out of 4:30.
Three stars, twice#
The NHL landing page names Carter Hart, Yaroslav Askarov and Misa, in order. The league gave two of its three stars to goaltenders; my list gives one.
- Ivar Stenberg. The primary assist and shootout goal accompanied the most five-on-five time of any San Jose forward, 16:18 of 55:30, plus 3:35 of 4:30 on the regulation power play.
- Alexander Wennberg. Stenberg's centre had the best five-on-five attempt count of any San Jose forward, 17 for and seven against across 24 attempts, plus 3:37 on the regulation power play.
- Carter Hart. He stopped 28 of 29 shots across 65 minutes against the more experienced lineup, including all 25 even-strength shots.
Askarov's 22 saves on 23 shots came with a lighter workload than Hart's, while San Jose led five-on-five attempts 48-45. Misa scored San Jose's goal, but his five-on-five count finished at 10 for and 14 against across 24 attempts.
Sources: NHL gamecenter landing, boxscore, play-by-play and shift charts; NHL player records; Sheng Peng, San Jose Hockey Now, Sept. 22, 2026.
