On Friday, the Edmonton Oilers made a pair of roster moves, loaning forward Isaac Howard to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.
The club also announced that they had placed veteran defenceman Troy Stecher on waivers with the implied purpose of reassigning him also to their AHL affiliate, the Condors.
The #Oilers have placed defenceman Troy Stecher on waivers & loaned forward Isaac Howard to the @Condors. https://t.co/8kzVajd7xi
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 14, 2025
It was announced on Saturday that Canadian rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs had successfully claimed the defenceman from the Oilers. This means that Stecher is no longer an Oiler and the club loses him for nothing.
The 31 year old blueliner had been with the club for parts of the last three seasons after being acquired by the Oilers at the 2024 NHL trade deadline from the now defunct, Arizona Coyotes. He was then re-signed by the Oilers that summer to a two-year contract worth $1.575 million ($787,500 per season). Through 79 games with the Oilers he scored three goals and six assists for nine points.
Over his career, Stecher has played 566 NHL regular season games and has turned into a journeyman having now been with seven clubs the; Oilers, Coyotes, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, and now Maple Leafs.
It was recently reported that there was trade interest in the Oilers depth defenceman and that general manager Stan Bowman may be able to get assets for him. Unfortunately, that seems to have not been the case and instead the team was forced to go this route.
The Oilers were dealing with a salary cap crunch with injured forward Zach Hyman fully recovered and ready to be activated off of long term injured reserve.
There is still a chance that the Oilers could re-claim Stecher should the Leafs place him on waivers as well but that seems unlikely given the club's current cap situation.
All salary cap information courtesy of Puckpedia.com