Stefan Noesen was suspended for 10 OHL games for a hit to the head of Oshawa’s Tyler Hore, and when the tournament opens on Boxing Day, will still have 7 games remaining in the suspension.

The IIHF honors suspensions from other leagues for international play and as a result, Noesen has been deemed ineligible to play for Team USA, despite the appeal of USA Hockey.

Noesen was the sole remaining candidate to represent the Senators in Ufa, Russia, after Mika Zibanejad was not released from Binghamton by the Senators, while Cody Ceci and Matt Puempel were left off the Canadian selection camp.

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.