Coming in at #19 is the team's third round selection from this past summers entry draft. The Center that is committed to Cornell University was the 63rd overall pick in the draft. Stienburg was the Avs first of their two third round selections. And to be frank, this one was a head scratcher for the vast majority inside the Avs community. It's pretty rare to see a prospect taken in the third round, ranked this low in my prospect rankings and to be quite honest, for me at least a large part of that is because there are so many question marks surrounding this kid. But we will get into all of that later.





For starters though, Stienburg primarily has played Center, which he is expected to play this upcoming season at Cornell, but he has also spent time playing on the Wing as well. He took a very intriguing path to being drafted. This was his second time through the draft process after he was not selected in the 2018 draft. He will be 19 when he steps on the ice opening night for Cornell. Leading up to his commitment to Cornell he spent the past four seasons playing in Canada at St. Andrew's College in CISA and the CAHS.





During his tenure at St. Andrews College, Stienburg posted some fairly impressive numbers. In 113 games he netted 71 goals and 160 points. Well over the point per game mark. The main questions surrounding him was his competition level that he was dominating. To put it in perspective, those were the concerns surrounding Tyson Jost and Cale Makar as they made the jumps from the BCHL and the AJHL to the NCAA level. Both of those respective leagues are significantly higher level in my personal opinion compared to the leagues Stienburg has spent the vast majority of his career leading up to his time at the NCAA. Now let me get this out of the way, I hate using that as a way to knock players. You can't control how good your competition is, you can only control how you play against them. He has obviously shown enough to the scouts getting paid the big bucks. He's shown them that in their eyes he is worthy of being a top 100 and early first round pick, and shown them that he is worthy of earning a scholarship to play NCAA Division 1 hockey. So for those reasons I'm pulling for him. However, you must take into account who he has been playing against.





He does have quite a few similarities to a player like we saw yesterday in Sasha Mutala. Stienburg spent his last season at St. Andrew's as the Captain of his team. Something we have seen this front office regime and scouting department put a lot of value into when it comes to evaluating potential draft prospects. You will see a lot of that coming up on this list. But beyond the captaincy, Stienburg has a very similar physical build. Size is certainly not going to be something that limits him in his pro career. He has solid skating, but not quite up to par with Mutala, but something that definitely stood out to scouts that helped him land inside the top 100. Also like Mutala his biggest concern is overall skill, and a lot of that stems from who he played against, but we've already dwelled on that.





Where he does separate himself from a player like Mutala is that his playmaking abilities are far more developed. He certainly has shown more consistency offensively as well as a lot more wide range of abilities thus far to create for his line mates. This is where you can see a lot of ability and IQ, you can tell he was ahead of his teammates and showed a lot of on ice maturity. Perhaps the biggest thing that separates him from Mutala is his consistency and willingness to use his physical play and size to his advantage game in and game out. To me this was one of the main reasons he was easily able to dominate at St. Andrews. He doesn't think twice about getting in those dirty areas and mixing it up with his opponents. That physical style and willingness is probably my favorite part to his game as he stands 6'1" 185. Not a giant, but obviously good size for an almost 19 year old.





This season will be huge for his development. For Stienburg though, I'm not really looking for immediate results like I am for a guy like Mutala. His competition is going to be a lot tougher this year, he will be playing against bigger competition that isn't going to shy away from him or be intimidated by his physical play. There is 100% going to be a learning curve. I fully expect him to get out to a slow start the first month to month and a half of the season. I really don't expect for him to start consistently finding his rhythm until around Thanksgiving in late November. And that's alright. This isn't a prospect that is going to be a one and done at the college level. His looking at the bare minimum of two seasons and I personally think at least three seasons. And that is alright.





What I am really looking for from him is to carve out a consistent role on the team and find a good amount of ice time by seasons end. If he can do that especially for the second half of the season then the results will follow. I really do love the fact that he is playing NCAA instead of Major Junior, as far as how it effects his development. This is something that will be perfect for him and his style in my opinion as far as preparing him for the pro game. It also will not put any sort of rush on him as well. My personal expectations for this kid is for him to post a .5 points per game and to find his feet and larger amount of ice time in the second half of the season.





Stienburg is definitely a kid that will take time developing, which again is ok. The fact of the matter is NCAA will be a bit of a transition for him, but it will be a much needed transition for his development. Also for Avs fans that can't find any film or tape on him, his playing US College hockey will open the door for that and allow the average Avs/Prospects fan the ability to watch him and keep tabs on him. Going the NCAA was a great route and it will be very interesting to see the role he carves out up in Ithaca.



