Last Wednesday, the Edmonton Oilers claimed Alec Regula off waivers from the Boston Bruins. As Oil On Whyte's Nestor Quixtan wrote, this move raised some eyebrows among fans but also contained some intriguing ties between player and organisation.
On the subject of being tied to each other, this brings to mind the saying of for better and worse. Well, it's only been a few days, but the latter seems to already be the order of the day when considering an update from Jim Matheson.
The Edmonton Journal reporter took to social media, to advise that Regula isn’t near being ready to play for the Oilers, after his knee surgery while with the Bruins. Matheson goes on to write, that the defenceman might still be in the rehab stage and may yet end up in Bako to play games on a conditioning stint.
Rehabbing since the offseason
The 2018 third round draft pick suffered his knee injury during the offseason, and Matheson's update had some people wondering if the Oilers were aware of what stage he was at in his recovery process? Even more so, when you consider Travis Dermott was similarly placed on waivers by the Oilers as a result of the addition.
If nothing else, at least Regula doesn't count towards the Oilers' salary cap at this point. As per PuckPedia, he is still on season-opening injured reserve despite being waived by the Bruins and claimed by the Oilers.
Along these lines, whenever the 24-year-old is finally activated, he is on a two-way deal which has a cap hit of $775k at the NHL level. In any event, the Oilers and their fans will now anxiously wait for him to continue his recovery and eventually provide some solid depth on the blue line as and when needed.
Regula's scouting report has him as a big, mobile and offensively talented defenceman with some intriguing upside. To date though he has been limited to just 22 games at the NHL level, with him producing one goal, a -3 rating, 32 blocks and 28 hits while averaging 16:54 of ice time.