Panthers complete a couple transactions adding Visscher

Head Coach Brad Tippett spoke with 19-year-old Cianan Briscoe ten days ago, the discussion focusing on his playing time with the Peninsula Panthers. Briscoe was looking for more ice time and it was a commodity that the Panthers were not sure that they could provide.  But Briscoe wanted to stay in the VIJHL and felt that with an opportunity to showcase his talents, he could prove to be a beneficial piece for one of the nine teams.

On Thursday afternoon, Coach Tippett and the likeable power forward once again had a discussion, this time to let him know that he had been moved to the Comox Valley Glacier Kings.  Briscoe, who was clearly one of the most popular players within the Club, was heartbroken and wore some of the emotion on his sleeve.  But in the end, he took the news well and looked forward to the next challenge and jumped in his wheels and headed to Comox on Friday morning to prepare for a game that night in Campbell River with his new Club.

Coach Tippett on Briscoe.  "It was a very hard decision as Cianan was such a big part of our dressing room.  He worked his way onto the team last year.  We were full on the right side and there wasn't an opportunity to play the prime time minutes a 19-year-old is looking for.  Comox was looking for a strong character guy as they rebuild their team.  It was an obvious fit.  We want to thank Cianan for his contribution and wish him success in his career."

And on Friday night just before the Panthers hit the ice in their game against the Oceanside Generals, 18-year-old Hayden Visscher showed up at the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre.  This time instead of suiting up for the Saanich Braves as he had done all last season as a rookie in the VIJHL, Visscher was simply wearing a suit and with it, was supporting a big smile.  The 5'11", 170 lbs. forward had just been obtained in a complicated three-way deal involving Visscher's former team and the Campbell River Storm.

"Coach Tippett had been working on this deal for a while and on Friday it fell into place," explained Pete Zubersky.  "We had completed a deal a couple seasons ago with the Campbell River Storm and although we had received some of the compensation that was owing, we were still owed a piece.  The Saanich Braves had something going with the Storm from a previous deal and after a lot of talking between the three teams, Hayden ended up here on the Peninsula.  He is in his first year as an Electrical Apprentice and the timing of the Braves' practices did not allow him to attend both work and play in Saanich.  This trade really helped satisfy the three teams involved and most importantly, worked well for the player as well."

Coach Tippett commented on this move.  "We had identified Hayden last season as a guy we would be interested in should he become available. We knew that there might be a schedule conflict with his work/school/practice times and actually initiated discussions as far back as June. He had played previously with some of our current players and under Assistant Coach Mike Cox and ticked a lot of the right boxes in terms of skills, skating, character and work ethic.  We have been short left-handed forwards for a while and his addition allows us to have all forwards playing their natural sides.  We had been trying to clean up the CR trade from 2 years ago for quite some time.  Saanich owed Campbell River in a trade with the Storm that they also needed to clean up. Technically, Hayden was CR Storm player for about one minute before coming to us. And hats off to Sam Waterfield of the Braves for handling the situation in a first-class manner.  This was a trade where everyone came out of it winning."

Visscher will practice Monday night with the Panthers and will most likely be inserted into the lineup this weekend including when the Panthers host the Victoria Cougars on Friday night at 7:30 pm.