How Carolina Hurricanes forward Stefan Noesen went from ‘psycho’ on ice to Mr. Dependable

Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour has often talked about his team needing more consistency this season.

You won’t hear him say that about Stefan Noesen.

With Noesen, the effort is always there. It has to be. The forward is the kind of player who has had to earn everything he’s gotten — roster spots, playing time, points — in a hockey career he likes to call a “wild show.”

Actually, he didn’t say “wild,” but you get the idea.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Noesen said in an N&O interview this week. “It’s grinding. I think you see the way that I play is pretty hard and I give it up every single day.

“It’s kind of the way my career has been. It’s been hard. There’s no easy roads, ever.”

Noesen, 30, grew up in Texas, the son of a former college basketball player. His father, Glen, was an unrelenting, in-your-face point guard for Angelo State who his son said was a “bad dude.”

Actually, he didn’t say “dude,” but you get the idea.

“And he likes to remind me of that,” Noesen said, smiling.

Noesen said he gave basketball a try as a kid but noted there was not a lot of need for ”short, white power forwards.” He said he was on skates at 3 and started competitive hockey at age 4, and that was that. He liked it even if his parents didn’t always like it.

“I was a handful,” he said.

Not off the ice. On it, where he could be a bad dude.

“I was an absolute psycho when I was a kid,” Noesen said. “Oh, yeah. I’d go on the ice and get five or six penalties from hitting people too hard. Fight, do all that kind of stuff.

“I was always bigger than everyone. I could score. But I’d lead the team in goals and penalty minutes. It was that way all the way, for a long time.”

Noesen was a first-round draft pick by the Ottawa Senators in 2011, taken 21st overall. He never played for the Sens but made NHL stops in Anaheim, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, San Jose and Toronto when he wasn’t in the American Hockey League.

“A lot of ups and downs, lot of adversity, lot of self-reflection,” Noesen said. “I had a lot of pride. I never counted myself out at anything.

“Negative stuff doesn’t really impact me. It kind of motivates me. That’s the way it’s always been and always will be.”

There were injuries. There were naysayers, and noise. As he said, it was a bumpy ride.

Then, the Carolina Hurricanes came calling.

The Canes signed him as a free agent in August 2021. Playing for the Chicago Wolves in 2021-22, he had an AHL-best 48 goals in 70 games — plus 112 penalty minutes.

The Wolves won the 2022 Calder Cup championship and Noesen did his part with nine goals and 25 points in the 18 playoff games.

That earned him a new two-year contract with the Hurricanes, and he was in the lineup in for 78 games in the 2022-23 regular season and 15 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In the second-round series against New Jersey, Noesen took exception to the Deviis’ Erik Haula during Game 3 as the Canes were taking an 8-2 beating. Down went Haula in what seemed like an “enough is enough” kind of one-sided confrontation.

That series, in essence, was over. No more fun for the Devils.

Through the first 31 games this season, Noesen had nine goals and 19 points and a plus-11 plus/minus rating.

“He’s been really good, really since he’s been here,” Brind’Amour said. “You talk about an under-the-radar kind of player. Now he’s been given a lot more opportunity here lately and it’s certainly noticeable.

“He’s been one of those players you know what you’re getting out of him. His game doesn’t change.”

Noesen has been used on every line and was with Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis against the Washington Capitals. His job: “Get the puck and get it to the skill guys and let them do their thing.”

And get to the front of the net. That’s Noesen’s playpen, down where things can get nasty. Used on the power play, he patrols the crease.

“I don’t get up and down the ice all that good so I’ve got to do something good,” he joked. “Down there, and below the goal lines, I’m at home. In this league you’ve got to find something you’re really good at or else you kind of fizzle out, so that’s something I take pride in and work on every day.

“I pride myself on trying to be really good in the D zone. Then it’s getting down the opposite zone and it’s home base.”

For Noesen, the Hurricanes and Raleigh have become his new home base. Married with two young kids, he’d like to believe he can stick with this team and continue to play for a coach he says appreciates and rewards hard work.

“You see guys who get every opportunity in the world and some make the most of it and some guys, for whatever reason, it doesn’t pan out,” Noesen said. “Then you have guys on the other side of it who get one shot and maybe get shoved under the rug. Then you get another chance and you keep going on and on and on.

“That’s how it has been for me.”

Of note: Dell brought in on PTO

The Canes are looking at another goalie. Aaron Dell, who has 130 games of NHL experience, has been brought in for a free-agent tryout. Dell, 34, played four games with San Jose last season.