Breaking down the battle for the Oilers’ 6th defence spot

With the Edmonton Oilers’ defence almost entirely in place from last season, there wasn’t much competition to be had throughout training camp for the big-ticket spots. We all know Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm will be the 1st pairing, and Bouchard will quarterback the power play, and Jake Walman, plus Darnell Nurse, will hold down the 2nd pairing. Brett Kulak will hold down the fort on the 3rd pairing.

However, there has been some debate over who will eventually gain the last spot alongside him. Alec Regula, Ty Emberson, and Troy Stecher have all spent the pre-season battling for the position, and today we’ll take a look at all 3 players and see how each player could fill that 3rd pairing role.

Ty Emberson

Acquired from San Jose in the Cody Ceci trade, Emberson was a regular 3rd-pairing guy last season in Edmonton. In 76 games, he had 13 points and played most of his time alongside Kulak. Emberson has only played 106 NHL games in his career, so at age 25, he’s still got a lot of tread on the tires.

The former Shark is your prototypical 3rd pairing defenceman; not flashy offensively or incredibly lockdown defensively, but good enough at both to succeed. If you’re not a star defenceman in the NHL, the most success you can ask for is not to stand out during games, and Emberson excels at that. He’s no muss, no fuss. A perfectly serviceable 3rd pairing guy who doesn’t leak goals and had a good season last year.

Emberson does have one big area of value, though- he’s a tremendous penalty killer, with good instincts and ability to block shooting lanes. Aside from Ekholm, the Oilers don’t have a ton of great defensive options on the PK, so Emberson could get the 3rd pairing nod purely for his special-teams prowess.

Overall, Emberson is a solid option on the 3rd pair. He succeeded in the role last season, and his penalty-killing abilities make him valuable. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see him play the majority of the year as the Oilers’ 6th defenceman, free from the worry of being a rotating 7th man. The one area of concern for Emberson last year was the playoffs. He only played 9 games in the postseason and was benched after Game 3 against Vegas. Now, he is still young, so maybe another year will allow him to succeed once April rolls around, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Who ended up replacing Emberson? Well, he’s the next man on our list.

Troy Stecher

Stecher also featured in a decent amount of games of the Oilers’ last season, putting up 7 points in 66 games played. Unlike Emberson, Stecher is a true NHL veteran, with 560 games played in the league. However, their styles are comparable. Neither man is flashy, but they get the job done. Stecher’s true value to the Oilers wouldn’t come around until the playoffs, however.

After he and John Klingberg were added to Edmonton’s lineup, the defence would stabilize. Klingberg would form a pairing with Jake Walman, while Stecher became the “Darnell Nurse Whisperer“, as the two men would post incredible analytical numbers until the Stanley Cup Final, where Stecher’s one flaw was exposed.

Stecher’s flaw is that he’s just not that big. At 5’10 and 184lbs, he’s also not small, but compared to the size of the Panthers team, Stecher often found himself muscled off the puck. This was evident particularly in Game 4, where a costly turnover led to a goal just before the end of the first period. This saw Stecher benched for the rest of the game, including the eventual overtime period. Compared to Emberson’s 6’2, 193lb frame, Stecher is certainly the smaller man.

He’s also the oldest of the three defencemen in the running. At 31 years old, he’s 6 years older than Emberson and Regula, who are both 25. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stecher get time as the Oilers’ 7th defenceman, but I don’t see him taking over the 6th defenceman spot on any kind of permanent basis. That just leaves one player to explore, and he’s perhaps the most intriguing one.

Alec Regula

Claimed off waivers by Edmonton last December, Alec Regula has yet to make his regular-season debut in the blue and orange. An injury kept him on IR all season and the playoffs. However, he’s come into training camp and the pre-season looking good, and he’s made a serious case to make the Oilers.

Regula has never seen serious NHL time, with just 15 games played in the league as a Chicago Blackhawk. In 55 AHL games last season as a Providence Bruin, Regula posted 26 points in 55 games. Those are pretty good numbers for a defenceman at the AHL level. Regula also has one thing over both Emberson and Stecher – size. He’s comparatively a giant at 6’4 and 212lbs. Regula isn’t afraid to use his size, but he’s also not one to throw himself out of position in search of a big hit.

Regula is the wildcard option here. His preseason showings with Edmonton have shown a defenceman playing with much more poise than expected for his level of experience. He moves the puck calmly and competently, seems to have good positioning, and his bigger frame allows him to play a bit more physically than Emberson or Stecher. Whether or not he’s able to play special teams is unknown, but if he could be used on the penalty kill, it would certainly raise his value to the Oilers. Edmonton also re-signed Regula to a two-way, $775,000 contract this May, so the organization clearly has some interest in keeping him around.

Who wins the job?

I could honestly see a world where all three men make the Oilers roster. Regula would need to clear waivers, but given his pre-season play, it’s unlikely he would make it through without being claimed. Edmonton also likely doesn’t want to lose a potentially NHL-ready defenceman for nothing.

Keeping Regula might mean needing to expose Stecher on the waiver wire, unless the Oilers decide to enter the season with 8 defencemen. This would necessitate a forward like Curtis Lazar being left unprotected. It’s a good problem for the Oilers to have, deciding which defenceman they believe fits their roster best. I do hope Edmonton can find a way to keep all three players around – I think they will all be useful and present their own strengths that can contribute to the roster in different, but meaningful ways.