Oilers place Andrew Mangiapane, Alec Regula on NHL waivers

Mangiapane’s name has been in the rumour mill since after the Christmas break, with the winger ahving struggled to adapt his game to Edmonton. He’s appeared in 52 games for the Oilers this year, scoring seven goals and 14 points, posting some of the worst offensive numbers in his nine year NHL career.

The Oilers signed Mangiapane to a two-year, $3.6 million per year contract last summer, with the team hoping he could bring offence into the bottom-six. After all, while playing the majority of his minutes on the Washington Capitals’ third and fourth lines last season, he put up 14 goals and 28 points in 81 games.

But that hasn’t happened, and Mangiapane has had some of the worst underlying metrics of any Oilers forward this season, with the team getting outscored a staggering 38-21 with him on the ice, a team-worst -17 mark. Still, there’s been a number of teams Mangiapane has been linked to trade talks, and reports suggest the team will be able to move him ahead of next Friday’s deadline.

Regula has appeared in 29 games for the Oilers posting three assists, but has struggled for much of the season, and hasn’t played an NHL game since January 20th. The team loaned Regula to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors on Feb. 18 on a conditioning stint, which he returned from ahead of Saturday’s game against the Sharks.

For now, if he goes unclaimed, the Oilers can free up roughly $1.1 million in cap space with him in the minor leagues. If Regula goes unclaimed, it would free up an additional $663,334, giving the Oilers $1.813 million in space.

According to PuckPedia, the Oilers could be trying to maximize cap space to place Mattias Janmark on waivers. If both Josh Samanski and Isaac Howard, for example, are on the Oilers roster when they place Janmark on LTIR, then they would carry an AAV of $1.46 million and $1.62 million, respectively, as their cap hit and performance bonus’ would count against the cap. If both are on the NHL roster when Janmark is placed on LTIR, then the would carry a cap hit of $975,000 and $950,o00, respectively.