Senators Prospect Prince Cut By Team USA

Ottawa Senators prospect and Ottawa 67’s winger Shane Prince was released by Team USA as they made their cutdown from 29 players to 22.  Prince was a standout at both the summer development camp and from everything I have heard, also at this selection camp.  However he played a limited role in the teams first pre-tournament game and was a scratch last night.

It is another bitter pill to swallow for the Ottawa 67’s players, as Tyler Toffoli and Cody Ceci were unable to crack the Team Canada roster last week.  Prince is one of the top players in the OHL and in my opinion a victim of hockey politics.  I believe the NCAA is pressuring USA Hockey to give preference to players playing in the NCAA rather than those that leave the US system to play in the CHL.  That way the NCAA would have an additional carrot to dangle to entice the top US talent to stay at home. This year 7 of the 22 players (including 2 goaltenders) are from the CHL, which is actually up from last year’s 4 CHL’ers.  Last year’s Team USA also had 4 players playing in minor pro at the time of the tournament.

If my suspicions are correct, and I admittedly have no facts to base this opinion on, just a gut feeling, it is a shame that a player of Prince’s ability and character was omitted because of where he plays.