For a solid 48 hours there, it seemed as if Edmonton Oilers might have added more organizational depth along the blueline. Then the pesky Minnesota Wild got involved and Wednesday’s waiver pick-up essentially became Friday waiver “trade”.
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The Oilers temporarily added a 46th contract to their 50-man roster at noon on Wednesday when they picked up big right-shot defender Alec Regula from Boston Bruins, and made room for him by waiving Travis Dermott 24 hours later. But at noon on Friday came the news that the Wild, vanquished 7-1 by the Oilers the previous evening, took a small measure of revenge by claiming Dermott.
That the Oilers think they won the “trade” is evident in the sequence of events, in which they precipitated both ends of the change on the big league roster. But it was surely their hope that Dermott might clear through the NHL which would in the short term help solve a problem at the AHL level (just one lLHD on Bakersfield Condors and in the longer view provide a bit more organizational depth on the blue. Especially important at a position that’s always vulnerable to the whims of the injury gords.
Said whims impacted both teams last night. First it was Jake Middleton, a first-pairing d-man on the Wild, who left the game after one shift after being struck in the hand by an Evan Bouchard shot. Let’s turn the narrative over to Wild beat reporter Michael Russon, one of the best in the biz.
The news today is not good.
With the Wild already missing another key left-shot defenceman in Jonas Brodin, the availability of an experienced LHD on the waiver wire proved irresistible.
Dermott was invited to camp on a Profressional Tryout (PTO) in September, made the grade as the seventh defenceman and signed a one-year, two-way contract as the season got underway. He wound up playing 10 games for the Oilers, with boxcars of 0-0-0, -3 in 13 minutes per game.
At the other end of the game, Bouchard himself was in a very bad way after being bodied into the goal frame by Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman. Thankfully, news has just come down that the squad’s top minute-muncher was not seriously injured on the play, appearances at the time notwithstanding.
If Bouchard is unable to go on Saturday afternoon, the Oilers will need to activate another defenceman. Leading candidate would be Regula, who has yet to play a game this season and is currently in a special contract status:
Ideally he gets to keep that status because Bouchard is good to go against the Vegans tomorrow.
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