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Sports

Every Day is a Potential Signing Day for the Whalers, CHL teams

Stefan Noesen, Jamie Devane and J.T. Miller have signed NHL contract; others are waiting.

WHALERS THIS WEEKEND:

Wednesday was National Signing Day throughout college football. It’s a time when the top high school recruits in the country pick their schools.  The top players are shown on ESPN, sports talk radio covers the event and local papers will do their due diligence. 

National websites and magazine rate the top football programs. Although many fans root hard for their respective teams to do well on National Signing Day, there’s a very good chance the same fans haven’t seen the recruits.

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It can be argued that every day is National Signing Day in the Canadian Hockey League.  If you are new to the Whalers, the Ontario Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League, once a CHL player is selected in the National Hockey League Entry Draft, NHL teams have a two-year window to sign drafted players.

Signings in the CHL are usually done in a low-key fashion.  Obviously, it’s exciting for the players, their parents, the agents and the teams involved.  Unlike college football, there’s no press conference, no microphones and almost no media coverage.

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A case in point?  Whalers forward Stefan Noesen, who recently signed with Ottawa, who selected him in the first round (21st overall) in last summer’s NHL Entry Draft.

Once the Senators Fed-Exed Noesen his contract, he simply signed it and Fed-Exed it back.

Although Ottawa had another year before they had to sign Noesen, they saw enough to sign him this year.

And unlike many followers of college football, Plymouth fans and OHL observers have seen Noesen enough to know and appreciate what he brings to the rink every night.

Noesen leads the Whalers in scoring with 20 goals and 37 assists for 57 points in 44 games.  Even though the Whalers are the second-highest scoring team in the OHL with 201 goals, there’s so much depth on the team (eight players with 40 points or more) that personal stats suffer.

Still, signing the contract was a relief.

“I’ve worked very hard for this,” Noesen said.  “I started a few years ago with Mike (Vellucci) and things have been rolling ever since.  He put a lot of faith in me, so it’s good to get this thing done.”

See the rest of the story and find out how Tom Wilson is doing at the CHL Top Prospects, see what Plymouth alums fought each other, and see where the Whalers rank in the latest Yahoo! Sports Junior Hockey Poll.

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