Edmonton Oilers may trade $2.6M defenceman at risk of losing his roster spot

In his games played so far, Alex Regula has recorded a TOI of
15:53, including 55 seconds of penalty kill time.

Though it's quite early in the season, and D-pairings will likely change, Alec Regula was slotted on the 2nd D-pairing with Darnell Nurse to start the year, with head coach Kris Knoblauch showing trust in the young player 5v5 and on the PK.

The question early in the year, however, is will defenseman Ty Emberson climb up the depth chart and claim minutes as one of the Oilers' top-3 defensive parings?

So far, Emberson appears to be outside looking in, and will likely be considered as a trade-asset closer to the trade-deadline. At a $1.3M cap hit, the Oilers would benefit in terms of post-season salary cap.

With limited games to consider his value to the Oilers, it's worth looking at his last season's production as an indication of what he can do.

In 2024-25, both Stetcher and Emberson were generally in Edmonton's lineup for most of the regular-season, with Emberson playing 76 regular-season games and Stecher 66.

However, the trade deadline acquisition of Jake Walman altered Edmonton's defensive core roster, affecting both Emberson and Stecher's roles moving forward. This was particularly evident in the postseason.

Though Emberson appeared in all six games of the first round of the post-season and the early part of round two, he was sidelined as a healthy scratch for the remainder of the postseason, sitting out the entirety of the Western Conference and Stanley Cup Finals.

As for Stecher, he was persistently in and out of the lineup throughout the postseason, playing two games in the second round, four games in the third round, and two games in the cup Finals

It is expected that there will only be one remaining spot up for grabs on a healthy roster between Stecher and Emberson, with the latter having almost double the cap hit, and therefore the more likely to be traded.