With just over a week until the December 1st BCHL card deadline, it will be interesting to see what the Vernon Vipers do. Over this past week the Vipers traded 20 year old forward, Kyle St. Denis to the Victoria Grizzlies for future considerations. Rumors a few weeks back were in the BCHL BC Hockey Now newspaper that Vernon and St. Denis's hometown Trail Smoke Eaters were trying to work out a deal for the former Kelowna Rocket forward. This past Thursday the WHL Rockets released St. Denis and then on the sameday the Vipers traded the former Viper to Victoria. St. Denis now isnt going to report to the Grizzlies and is only willing to play for the Smoke Eaters.
I for one was very surprised to hear that the Rockets released St. Denis and then Vernon traded him this early. At the start of the WHL season word was St. Denis who was going to be out of the Rockets lineup until atleast Christmas due to concusion problems, I figured it wouldnt be until closer to the BCHL-WHL trade deadline when we would see St. Denis maybe on the move. Mark Ferner mentioned on the Vipers pre-game show over the weekend St. Denis didnt want to come to Vernon and a deal between the Vipers & Smoke Eaters fell apart. It would be interesting to see what the actual trade was and for who? & now I wonder what the future considerations part of the Vernon-Victoria trade will be? Most of the time a trade involving future considerations usally means cash coming back the other way, but involving a player like St. Denis you have to think maybe the Vipers will recieve a player at the end of the season, but this will all depends if St. Denis plays and for who.
In another move, well sort of the WHL Tri-City Americans assigned 17 year old Vernon product, Zach McPhee to the Vipers this past week. But as of today no word has been mentioned from the Vipers themselves. My guess is due to the team away from home (on a five game road trip) the Vipers dont want to sign-play McPhee and burn a card without getting a good look at the youngster. My guess is McPhee may join the Vipers this week, for a good weeks worth of practise. This giving the Vipers a good week to get a look at McPhee. The question is, with the card deadline just over a week away do the Vipers sign McPhee to a card or sign Nick Kerr who has been playing with the Vipers as an "AP" the past seven games. Or do the Vipers hold off and wait to make a trade or a few changes and see whos avaliable to fill the lone empty roster spot.
It will be interesting to see what Mark Ferner does before the card deadline. Before the Vipers hit the road for five games, I had said they need to bring in a veteran goaltender if they want to go deep into the playoffs, but after the road trip I thought both goalies played well. Blake Voth looked very solid in Sundays 2-1 win over Surrey, making several key saves in the 3rd to give Vernon a chance to win, if Voth can keep up his play and continue to play like this then the Vipers will be fine between the pipes. The question is, can Voth stay consistant all season?
I do think the Vipers need a proven goal scorer, on many nights if not most nights the Vipers badly outshoot their opponents and come away with one or two goals. Just five times this year Vernon has scored five or more goals in a game, the Vipers are getting lots of shots on net but dont have a true sniper.
I do think there is a few areas that need to be addressed, lets see what Mark Ferner does within the next week.
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