St. Louis Blues’ 2023 first-round draft pick Otto Stenberg is coming to North America.
The Blues have confirmed a report in Sweden that Stenberg is leaving the Malmo Redhawks of the Swedish Hockey League and joining the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League.
Stenberg, a 19-year-old forward, played 25 games with Malmo this season and had three goals and 6 points. He recently played in the 2025 World Juniors for Sweden and had three goals and 8 points in seven games for the Swedes, who lost in the bronze medal game.
Following the World Juniors, Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said that Stenberg “had a very good tournament.”
Armstrong was also asked about Stenberg’s limited role with Malmo and, in his response, compared it to the situation of prospect Dalibor Dvorsky, the No. 10 pick in 2023. Dvorsky also left Sweden to play Canadian junior hockey before joining Springfield this season. In 27 games with the Thunderbirds, he has 11 goals and 21 points and was recently named an AHL All-Star.
“That’s something that we debate quite a lot is I really see the benefit of Dvorsky playing in major junior (last season),” Armstrong said. “These guys (like Stenberg) are playing against men and a job in which coaches get hired and fired because of wins and losses. It’s harder for a younger player. You have to fight for every inch that you get at that age. Their minutes aren’t what they would be if they were playing against their peers exclusively. But that’s how the Europeans do it and we accept that.”
But just a few days after those comments, the Blues revealed that instead of accepting Stenberg’s situation in Sweden, they’re giving him a new opportunity in Springfield.
Meanwhile, Armstrong was thrilled with the performance of the organization’s record-high nine prospects at the World Juniors. The list features Stenberg, Dvorsky, Juraj Pekarcik, Jakub Stancl, Adam Jiricek, Adam Jecho, Ondrej Kos, Theo Lindstein and Colin Ralph. Collectively, five of the nine won medals, including Ralph who took home gold with Team USA.
“We’ve been fortunate, or unfortunate depending on how you want to look at it (because of back-to-back seasons with no NHL playoffs), to have acquired a lot of picks,” Armstrong said. “Credit goes exclusively to our amateur staff for finding the right players, and then they share the credit with our development staff on spending time in making these young players better. We’re looking forward to getting these guys to the NHL and to pro as quick as possible.”
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler was in Ottawa for the World Juniors, and we asked you to submit questions for him about the Blues’ nine prospects at the tournament. Wheeler fielded a half dozen of those, and here are his responses.
Note: Some questions were lightly edited for length and clarity.
The Blues had a record nine prospects at the World Juniors. How much of this is due to the randomness of drafting prospects from four different countries versus having a high-ranked prospect system? — Ravi R.
It’s definitely a factor in it. There were prospects left off Team Canada, for example, who were higher-end prospects than any of the Blues who participated (Beckett Sennecke, Zayne Parekh and debatably Carter Yakemchuk). So the teams that draft heavily out of the CHL are more likely to have less representation than the ones that trust their European scouts. But in saying that, Dvorsky was one of the top 2005s in the tournament and performed that way, and Lindstein and Stenberg have been top players within the Swedish 2005s for years, so it’s not like those guys were sneaking into the tournament. They played big roles for top countries. Kos, on the other hand? Yeah, not much of a prospect in my view. There’s no doubt that any time a team has that number of players in the tournament it’s a sign of a healthy pool, though. The Blues have a good young group coming.
What did you see from Jiricek at the WJC? What have you noticed from his limited Canadian Hockey League appearances? — Timothy L.
I thought Jiricek played well in Ottawa. He didn’t blow me away, but they really balanced the usage of their three D pairings more than any other team in the tournament, and he still finished second on the Czech blue line in average ice time (18:52) as an 18-year-old. He has always played well for his country and this was another example. I thought he involved himself and showed confidence and trust in his reads on and off the puck. There were a couple of lapses in coverage, but he defended well for his age and kept his feet moving off the puck on offense and defense.
His play with Brantford (Ontario Hockey League) has been a bit of a feeling-out process. His first couple of games back he didn’t look himself, but when I did a couple of follow-up viewings for the Blues’ upcoming pool ranking, he looked more comfortable at the pace of play and within the style of the OHL.
Dalibor Dvorsky, the Blues’ No. 10 pick in 2023, played for Switzerland at the World Juniors. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
What are your thoughts on Dvorsky’s skating and/or separation abilities? I’m not quite sold. — Scott C.
You’re in the right frame of mind on it. I don’t think Dvorsky is slow, per se, but he’s not quick either. His first few steps work hard, and he can build power through his crossovers, but he’s not fast off the starting line and it doesn’t build toward a high top speed. To compensate, he has learned to protect the puck off his hip extremely well and slow down through the neutral zone in possession to really pick his routes and plan his entries. Players who play that way can see the effects of it more in the NHL, so he’ll have to adjust to it, but he’s got the rest of the tools to work around it — the touch on the puck, the skill, the stick detail, the work ethic off the puck, the faceoffs, the one-timer, etc.
One of his coaches used the Ryan O’Reilly comp with me, and while I don’t think he’s going to have the defensive impacts that O’Reilly has had throughout his career, they do move around the ice similarly. O’Reilly has made it work without ever making real progress in his skating, and I think Dvorsky is a slightly better skater (O’Reilly’s one of the slowest forwards in the league, so maybe he was quicker in his youth).
GO DEEPER
World Juniors notebook: Scott Wheeler’s thoughts on more than 100 NHL prospects
How many of these prospects are legit first- and second-line guys versus third- or fourth-line guys? — Paul V.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions in the lead-up to this year’s prospect pool rankings asking why the Blues with all their representation at the World Juniors haven’t been ranked higher in similar projections in previous years or at other outlets. Part of that answer can be answered in the answer to this question. The Blues have a lot of quantity of quality prospects, it’s true. Without spoiling their upcoming spot in this year’s countdown, they’ve got a good pool: Jimmy Snuggerud, Dvorsky, Jiricek, Stenberg, Lindstein, Zack Bolduc before them. All top players in their age groups coming up, or close. All have legitimate NHL potential. But they aren’t the top top, and it’s those players who truly change the shape and outlook of a franchise.
If all five of those guys reach their potential, are the Blues going to benefit? Absolutely. Especially if they can make an impact on their entry-level deals or early years of their RFA rights and the Blues can spend well around them. But are they going to be playing on a first line of a Stanley Cup contender, or be a top 1-3 D on one? I think Snuggerud and Dvorsky are more likely the fourth or fifth forward on a team like that (which is still a highly paid, important piece) if they hit. I think Lindstein’s probably a 4-5. Jiricek might have a wider range of outcomes, for good and for bad. But the reason you don’t see them with a top-five ranked pool, for example, is because those teams have a player or two who is at the very top of the prospect pyramid, so to speak, and then they have a handful of other really quality pieces as well.
How much weight does a tournament like this carry in prospect evaluations? How many tiers in your rankings can a handful of games with strong production bump up a guy like Stancl? — Matt M.
I think Stancl is the most positive story coming out of the World Juniors if you’re a Blues fan. The other eight played about in line with how you should have expected them to play. Stancl is the one who exceeded expectations. This is a kid who had 14 points in 28 games at the J20 level in Sweden as an 18-year-old last year. That’s a very poor post-draft season, even for a fourth-round pick. For him to go from that to leading the World Juniors in goals and making big plays in big moments against the best young players in the world is a huge deal. He’s had a respectable season in Kelowna, as well and looked more comfortable with the puck on his stick, than I can remember. Just so you have a picture: I wasn’t sure, coming into the tournament, whether he’d be on my Blues prospect pool ranking. He was sort of in the mix for spots 13-15. I’m not sure if he’s going to play in the NHL, so I don’t think anyone should get carried away, but he’s going to be on my list now!
GO DEEPER
NHL prospect pool rankings 2025: Scott Wheeler evaluates all 32 farm systems
Who is the most underrated Blues prospect? Most overrated? — Scott F.
Underrated: Lukas Fischer. I think he has the tools, makeup, disposition and work ethic to become a bottom-pairing NHL defenseman. The stats don’t pop, but he’s a strong kid with a strong, wide base to his stride who can play big minutes and looks like how NHL teams want their D to look these days.
Overrated: I’m not going to call a player who has missed the time that Jiricek has missed overrated because I still think he’s working his way back and has plenty of quality to his game/makeup/projection, but I will say that before any of the injuries, before he blew out his knee at last year’s World Juniors, I felt Jiricek was being overrated based on his performance at the Hlinka.
(Top photo of Otto Stenberg at the 2025 World Juniors: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
