Tyler Lowey
Morning Star Staff
The Vernon Vipers have acquired forward Hunter Zandee from the West Kelowna Warriors in exchange for future considerations.
The Kelowna native played in 42 games last season, recording two goals and 10 points, with 24 penalty minutes.
The Vipers were able to get a good grasp on Zandee because he was teammates with the Vipers’ head coach Mark Ferner’s son, Mac.
“We had an advantage of finding out about him away from the rink,” said Mark Ferner. “Everything came back very positive.”
Zandee played for the Pursuit of Excellence Hockey Academy before signing with the Warriors in the 2013-14 season. He rang up 26 goals, 55 points and 90 penalty minutes with the POE Under 18 team.
The 5-foot-10, 165-pounder shoots right and turns 19 on Oct. 25.
“He was in a role-playing situation last year because Kelowna had a pretty good team,” said Ferner.
The Warriors went 29-18-0-8 and placed third in the Interior Division.
“He’s a hard worker, he skates well, finishes his checks and he is going to score,” said Ferner.
Zandee will be in attendance when training camp opens next Friday at Kal Tire Place.
Ferner doesn’t know how many moves the Vipers will make before camp, but he is expecting the intensity to be high.
The Vipers, who acquired former BCHL all-star d-man Bo Pellah in a deal last week, have nine forwards, three blueliners and goalie Jarod Schamerhorn on their official roster.
n The defending BCHL champion Penticton Vees bolstered their back end by trading Mitch Newsome to the Langley Rivermen.
In moving the Surrey product, the Vees picked up 19-year-old Tyler Niven, who played three seasons at Governor’s Academy prep school in Byfield, Mass., where he was captain in his senior season.
The 6-foot, 190-pound Brunswick, Maine product had four points in 25 games and is known as an excellent skater, who plays a well-rounded game with a noticeable edge.
Newsome, 18, just completed his rookie season in the BCHL with six goals and 23 points in 49 regular season games. In the Vees’ post-season run, Newsome chipped in with a pair of goals and three points in 24 games. Newsome is committed to Michigan Tech University in the fall of 2016.
The Vees have also signed Penn State Nittany Lions’ leading freshman scorer Scott Conway, who was dismissed by the school for “violating team rules.”
The 20-year-old F was fifth in scoring with 10 goals and 34 games. Conway was named to the Big Ten’s all-freshman team. He had 33 goals for the now-dormant USHL champion Indiana Ice two years ago.
