If you’re looking at this headline and wondering who Alec Regula is, that’s more than fair, given he didn’t play in a game of hockey this season.
But he’s going to stick around Edmonton for two more years after the club signed him to a two-year, two-way $775,000 extension Friday.
The #Oilers have signed defenceman Alec Regula to a two-year, two-way contract extension! The 24-year-old was claimed off waivers from Boston in December. https://t.co/H6R1XmSBOz
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 2, 2025
He joined the Oilers on Dec. 11th, 2024, when the team claimed him off waivers from the Boston Bruins. Rehabilitating a knee injury at the time, he continued to do so in Edmonton, skating with the team a few times but never drawing in for any action.
The 6-foot-4 right-shot was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the third round in 2019, out of the OHL’s London Knights, where he played alongside Evan Bouchard. He never signed with the Red Wings, instead getting traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for Brendan Perlini that October.
He cut his teeth in that organization, spending most of his time with the Blackhawks’ AHL affiliate Rockford IceHogs. The Bruins would acquire him in the deal that sent Taylor Hall to the Blackhawks, where he spent the 2023-24 season, scoring four goals and 26 points in 55 games, posting a stellar +36 rating.
This is a player Oilers general manager Stan Bowman would know well, given he was still at the helm in Chicago, acquiring Regula and signing him to his entry-level contract.
Here’s some of what Oilersnation’s Bruce Curlock wrote about Regula when the Oilers claimed him:
Regula to me is a tweener type of player. He could play in a 6/7 role if the skating develops, but he could also be a very good first-pairing defenceman in the AHL. His game has some similarities to Cody Ceci: a big body, right-shot defenceman with skating issues who can lack a physical edge to his game. However, Regula is a better passer than Ceci and he has some good offensive instincts much like Ceci did on occasion.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
