Surprise! Edmonton Oilers snag big defenceman on waivers

Edmonton Oilers made another move on the waiver wire on Wednesday, claiming big defender Alec Regula  from the Boston Bruins.

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The #Oilers have claimed defenceman Alec Regula off waivers from Boston. The right-shot blueliner, selected 67th overall by Detroit in 2018, has appeared in 22 career @NHL games with one goal. pic.twitter.com/zX9uaDcIci

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 11, 2024

Coming off a knee injury that has delayed the start of his season, the 24-year-old right shot rearguard was placed  on waivers by the Bruins in the expectation that he would resume play with the Providence Bruins, with whom  he excelled  in 2023-24. But Stan Bowman had other ideas.

Bowman knows the player, having previously acquired him in the fall of  2019 (in a trade for then-future Oiler Brendan Perlini) back when he worked for Chicago Blackhawks. He broke into the professional ranks when the AHL resumed play for the COVID-shortened season of 2021, and made his NHL debut late that same season. He split  time between Rockford and Chicago the two seasons  that followed, mostly the former.

Originally a third-round pick by Detroit from London Knights in 2018, Regula played two junior seasons on the same defence corps as Evan Bouchard .before seemingly taking on the departed Bouchard’s powerplay role in 2019-20 (27  goals!). Unconfirmed reports suggest the two were partnered up at times, meaning one of them played on his weak (left) side, useful information for the local NHL squad which may be gathering a glut of RHD.

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The 6’4, 211 lb. blueliner was traded to the Boston organization last season (for Taylor Hall!). He signed a one-year two-way deal, cleared waivers and enjoyed a terrific season with Providence, leading the entire league in plus/minus at +36. He signed for a further year at NHL minimum of $775,000, with a relatively generous minor league component of $215,000.

In Edmonton he comes on board as the 23rd roster player and the addition of his salary will return the team to LTIR status, meaning no cap accrual for the short term. Remains to be seen whether Oilers  see him as competition for current #7 man Travis Dermott or a replacement for him. Tomorrow’s waiver wire may well contain the answer to that burning question.

The new acquisition is certainly bad news for the hopes of Josh Brown, previously the organization’s RHD-in-waiting who got called up briefly when Darnell Nurse missed a few games. Regula is younger, cheaper and almost as big as the 30-year-old Brown, who has two more years to run on his contract.

In some ways Regula’s path mirrors that of new teammate Ty Emberson, who was claimed off the waiver wire a year ago when the New York Rangers tried to slide him through. Emberson had enjoyed a terrific AHL season with Hartford Wolf Pack under Kris Knoblauch in 2022-23, and clearly San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier noticed.  It is in fact the purpose of waivers that players can’t be sequestered indefinitely by a single organization without consequence.

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Another comparable is former Oiler Vincent Desharnais, who led the AHL in plus with an identical +36 back in 2021-22. The late bloomer was exempt from waivers at the time, so no drama there, but Desharnais was in the NHL to stay by the middle of the following season. Check out the final full AHL season of each right-shot rearguard:

The first two had 132 and 122 games of AHL experience respectively before becoming full-time* NHL players. In Regula’s case make it 163 GP.

Such minor-league veterans can be useful, though generally in a limited “5-6-7” role even as they might specialize in an additional role such as penalty killing. Desharnais and Emberson for example both seized a role on Edmonton’s first PK unit within the past 12 months. That may or may not be Regula’s game, too soon to know, but there may be a value-added element to his game. Seems like he has the GM in his corner, which is a pretty darn good place to start.

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The newcomer does bring some much-needed size to a back end that literally downsized by an average of two inches and ten pounds across the seven-man unit when they switched out Desharnais, Cody Ceci and Philip Broberg from last season’s playoff roster for Emberson, Dermott, and Troy Stecher in the current  line-up.

As mentioned he is coming off a knee injury so don’t expect to see him in the line-up straight away.

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