Playing for Switzerland in the world juniors as a 6’3 181 15 year old
Classic SIHF. As stupid as it gets. They invite 28 players to a camp, plus 11 on the extended roster. Almost 40 players. Still, they later add another player because they watched him play a few NL games.
Don't get me wrong. Neuenschwander is a huge talent. But you can't leave a kid off a 39 man camp roster for a 23 man tournament roster and then add him because of a handful of NL games. Either you think he's good enough or you don't. To top it off the SIHF hasn't even updated the camp roster. It's just Biel announcing Neuenschwander joining the roster. Pathetic. The SIHF is a bad clown show with Mickey Mouse "coaches".
Either way that's a stupid decision. When you have that much depth, this many quality players available for a tournament you have to take into account the club situations. Neuenschwander is playing topline on Biel's NL team. Plus PP. 14mins or more per game. Why would you take him out of that very good situation he's in? Biel is eventually gonna get healthy. Now is Neuenschwander's chance to get his feet wet at the highest level of European pro hockey. That chance probably won't be there anymore once he's back from Ottawa. Similar story for the goalies. They don't select Santo Simmchen who practiced with Zug's NL team all season long. He barely played but when he did he was rock solid. He was standing on his head at the 5 nations during the most recent international break as well. Instead they select Christian Kirsch who has to get his USHL gig back but can't do so while he's playing the WJC20 and they select Ewan Huet who won't be able to beat out Kelton Pyne while he's at the WJC20 either.
It's possible that Neuenschwander can help a team lacking elite talent but if they wanted to add a forward to camp roster then players with big roles in the CHL like Körbler or Bosson would have been better choices. The same goes for Neuenschwander's teammate Nolan Cattin who has more experience playing at a higher level.
