In a league where “waived” is often treated as a verdict, the more revealing story can be what happens next. andrew mangiapane cleared waivers Monday and remained in the Edmonton Oilers organization alongside defenseman Alec Regula, turning a weekend waiver placement into a sharper snapshot of cap management, roster math, and the thin margin between “depth” and “disposable” in March.
Why the waiver wave matters right now
Sunday’s wire was crowded: five NHL players were placed on waivers—Andrew Mangiapane and Alec Regula (Edmonton Oilers), Luke Kunin (Florida Panthers), Robby Fabbri (St. Louis Blues), and Guillaume Brisebois (Vancouver Canucks). The immediate stakes were procedural but significant: if players cleared on Monday, they would become eligible for assignment to their American Hockey League affiliates.
By Monday, the outcomes started to separate teams’ intentions from teams’ leverage. Mangiapane and Regula cleared. Kunin and Brisebois also cleared. Fabbri was claimed by the Minnesota Wild. That single claim—one player moved, several kept—highlights how waivers can function less like a talent referendum and more like a market test shaped by contracts, fit, and timing.
Inside Edmonton’s decision: cap pressure versus performance signals
For Edmonton, the placement of andrew mangiapane carried extra charge because his name had circulated in trade conversations for the last couple of weeks amid an effort to offload him and bolster the roster. Yet finding a trade match has not been easy, in part because he has a full no-trade clause this season. That clause is not a footnote—it is leverage. It can narrow options precisely when a team is trying to create flexibility.
On-ice production adds another layer. Mangiapane has appeared in 52 games this season with seven goals and seven assists (14 points). The gap between expectations and output is visible enough that the waiver move could be read as performance-driven. However, Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said Monday the decision was made for salary-cap reasons rather than performance. That distinction matters because it reframes the waiver placement as an accounting maneuver designed to widen choices—potential AHL assignment eligibility, reduced roster constraints, or simply a reset in how the club can move pieces—without declaring the player unusable.
The contract context is unavoidable: Mangiapane is in the first season of a two-year deal carrying a $3. 6 million average annual value through the 2026-27 campaign. In a cap system, a mid-tier cap hit can be too large to ignore and too small to instantly solve bigger problems. The fact that andrew mangiapane cleared waivers suggests that, at least in this moment, other clubs weighed that cap number, his current production, and the season’s dynamics—and opted not to claim.
Regula’s case runs parallel in structure but different in scale. He has spent most of the season with Edmonton, though he has been a healthy scratch for significant stretches. In 29 games, he has registered three points, and he has also played three games for the Bakersfield Condors. He is in the first season of a two-year contract with a $775, 000 cap hit through next year. The smaller cap figure can make a player easier to carry, but it can also place him in the churn zone where roster spots are constantly contested. Regula cleared waivers too, keeping Edmonton’s options open without forcing an immediate loss of asset.
Expert perspectives: what waivers reveal about leverage and roster construction
Stan Bowman, General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers, characterized the move involving Mangiapane as salary-cap driven rather than performance related. That framing invites a broader takeaway: waivers can be used to create room to maneuver even when a player’s identity and role were initially built around depth.
In one of the clearer signals of Edmonton’s original intent, Mangiapane signed a two-year, $7. 2 million deal on July 1 with the aim of providing offensive depth behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The waiver placement does not erase that plan; it shows the club recalibrating amid results that “haven’t worked out” as hoped.
Regula’s profile underscores how quickly organizational narratives can change. The Oilers claimed Alec Regula off waivers from the Boston Bruins during the 2024-25 season, and he later returned to the waiver wire. He never played a regular-season game for Boston, but he did post a productive AHL season with the Providence Bruins in 2023-24: 55 games, four goals, 22 assists, 26 points, and an AHL-best plus-36 rating. Even with that minor-league résumé, his NHL stat line this season—three assists over 29 games—illustrates the difficulty of translating opportunity into permanence.
Regional and league-wide ripple effects after Monday’s outcomes
The Monday results created a useful map of league appetite. Minnesota’s claim of Fabbri—who had one goal and three assists in 15 games with St. Louis—contrasts with the no-claim outcomes for Mangiapane, Kunin, and Brisebois. Each situation comes with different constraints: Kunin has appeared in 44 games for Florida with two goals and two assists; Brisebois has not played an NHL game this season following an offseason lower-body injury that required surgery.
Waivers also function as a rolling pipeline, not a one-day event. New names appeared on Monday: Detroit Red Wings defenseman Erik Gustafsson, Seattle Kraken defenseman Gustav Olofsson, and Wild forward Tyler Pitlick. Their presence reinforces that, at this stage of the calendar, roster management is continuous and often reactive, shaped by cap considerations, injuries, and the need to preserve organizational depth.
For Edmonton specifically, keeping andrew mangiapane in the organization after he cleared waivers protects optionality. The club avoids losing him for nothing, while still positioning itself to adjust the roster within the constraints Bowman emphasized. Whether that flexibility translates into meaningful reinforcement depends on what the Oilers can do next within the same cap geometry that made the waiver route attractive in the first place.
What comes next for Andrew Mangiapane and the Oilers
Clearing waivers is not an endpoint; it is a changed set of permissions. With eligibility for AHL assignment now on the table for those who cleared, teams can re-balance lineups and cap commitments without forcing a trade or a claim outcome. For a player whose name has already been in trade conversations and whose no-trade clause narrows pathways, the waiver step can be interpreted as both pressure and protection.
The open question now is strategic: after andrew mangiapane clears waivers and remains in-house, does Edmonton use that cap-driven flexibility to reshape the roster quickly—or does this episode mark the beginning of a longer recalibration for a player and a team trying to align contract value, production, and contention priorities?
