Vipers Book Burnaby Duo To Bolster Blueline:

This is in todays Morning Star Newspaper:

Vipers book Burnaby duo to bolster blueline

By Graeme Corbett - Vernon Morning StarPublished: January 08, 2009

The Vernon Vipers got a whole lot tougher on the back end Thursday afternoon.
Vipers’ GM/head coach Mark Ferner made a pair of moves ahead of Saturday’s B.C. Hockey League trade deadline, picking up two bruising, 20-year-old defencemen from the Burnaby Express.
Cameron Brodie (6-foot-1, 215 pounds) and Mike Leidl (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) have 160 penalty minutes between them, and will instantly give the Snakes more of a physical presence as they gear up for the playoffs.
To acquire them, the Vipers moved assistant captain Steve Tresierra to the Merritt Centennials for future considerations. Those futures were packaged with forward John Digness, who was sent to Burnaby.
In 39 games with the Snakes, Tresierra, a 5-foot-11 Golden product, recorded five goals, nine assists and 57 penalty minutes.
Rather than sulk about being shipped to a last-place team, Tresierra is taking the trade in stride.
“It’s going to be a new experience,” said the second-year blueliner. “Merritt’s pretty excited to have me, and I’ll likely have a larger role. I’m just going to go in with a positive mindset and try to help the team out.”
Digness, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound forward from Red Deer, had 7-12-19 and 24 PIMs in 39 games, and was one of the Snakes’ best penalty killers.
“It’s tough moving two good, young players,” said Ferner. “This is the crappy part of the job.
“We knew we wanted to add another older body on the back end. When you add two that play the way (Brodie and Leidl) do, it makes it tough for other teams to play against us.
“They’re both big bodies that make people accountable in their end. They may not put up big numbers, but they’re mean and they’re hard to play against. We’re trying to build this team around a seven-game playoff series.”
Brodie had 5-13-18 in 43 games and Leidl posted 1-15-16 in 38 games.
“It’s a lot of excitement,” said Brodie, who attended Silver Star Elementary as a child and grew up idolizing the Vernon Lakers. “It’s both mine and Mike’s last year, so this is our last shot.
“Vernon’s got a tough team, and hopefully we can make it that much tougher, and take this team where it needs to go... not just to the BCHL title, but to the RBC Cup.
“That’s (physicality) always been my niche in this game, but I can also shoot and move the puck.”
Brodie will be playing with his sixth BCHL team in four years (Surrey, Langley, Trail, Merritt, Burnaby and now Vernon), but he said leaving former teammates is never fun.
“It’s never easy leaving the friends you make, but whenever you go to a new team, you make 20 new friends right away. It just takes a little getting used to.”
Tresierra will be all-too familiar with the opposition in his first game, as the Vipers host the Cents (7-32-0-3) tonight, and visit the Penticton Vees (23-13-0-6) Saturday in Penticton.