The Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League are becoming known as a factory for defencemen.
Jaccob Slavin has been a well-kept secret by the Carolina Hurricanes until just recently. NHL fans will hear a whole lot more from him this year.
Jamie Oleksiak can never be a secret. When you are six feet seven inches tall and weigh 260 pounds and are also the brother of Canadian Olympic champion swimmer, Penny Oleksiak, it’s hard to hide. Oleksiak is expected to play full-time with the Dallas Stars this season.
Then you have John Moore of the New Jersey Devils. At the age of 26, he has already played in 366 NHL games.
The next name on that list could be Alec Regula and he is coming to London to play for the London Knights.
London general manager, Rob Simpson announced on Friday afternoon that the West Bloomfield, Mich., native, who was a fourth-round pick of the Knights in 2016, will join the team for the 2017-18 season.
Regula won a Clark Cup championship in the USHL last season, playing with the Steel as a 16-year old and he travelled an interesting path to get to that point.
Regula didn’t start playing hockey at the AAA level until the age of 10 and decided to leave AAA when he got to high school. In his mind, he says he needed to get better.
“After playing a couple of years of AAA, my brother was playing high school and I really wanted to play with him and I did that for two years and it was unbelievable. Then I joined the Chicago Steel and decided that I really might have a future in this game and that’s what brought me (to London).”
One of the most common compliments that Regula receives is the one reserved solely for certain defencemen in hockey. He doesn’t stand out. He just does everything right and he always seems to find a way to make an impact in games, usually with things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.
Regula has a combination of size and skill and no matter what he is doing on the ice, he looks comfortable doing it. He says he looked at the opportunity to come to London and could not pass it up.
“About a week ago, I was all set to go back to Chicago,” said Regula. “Then I just started thinking that I had a great opportunity in London to come play and be a guy that impacts the game and be on the fast track to the NHL, so I decided to take advantage of that opportunity.”
He is eligible for the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and will play for the United States in the 2017 CCM/USA Hockey All-American Top Prospects game on Thursday, Sept. 21.
Regula could make his London Knights’ debut next week when the Knights play back-to-back games against the Erie Otters.
The teams that went to overtime of Game 7 of the Western Conference semi-finals last year will meet on Sept. 15 at Budweiser Gardens and then on Sept. 16 at the Komoka Wellness and Recreation Complex.
London opens the 2017-18 regular season at home against the defending Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires on Sept. 22.
At the moment, 11 players on the roster are away at NHL rookie camps.
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