Stefan Noesen Gets World Junior Invite From USA Hockey

Well at least one of the top prospects of the Ottawa Senators will have the opportunity to suit up for his national Junior team.

A day after Cody Ceci and Matt Puempel were excluded from Team Canada’s selection camp and Mika Zibanejad was denied the opportunity to attend the tournament by the Senators, Stefan Noesen was named to USA Hockey’s 27-man selection camp roster on Tuesday.

Noesen should make the team that he was released from last year, but is another year older and there are only 3 returning players from last year’s squad.  However that is what I thought about Ceci this year too. Noesen leads the Plymouth Whalers in goals despite missing some games last month due to an ankle injury.  He was selected in the first round, 21st overall by the Senators in the 2011 draft.

Out of 27 invitees, 11 of them are CHL players, a factor that seems to come into play every year as Team USA seems to have a quota ( whether official or unofficial ) of players they select from the NCAA ranks.  This ” policy ” reared its ugly head last year when Shane Prince and Noesen were left off the final roster.  The result was a rather fitting 7th place finish for Team USA.