Tony DeAngelo and the Carolina Hurricanes have come to terms on a one year $1.675M contract the club announced.
The signing brings an end to a back and forth negotiation, which included trade attempts which were ultimately blocked by the league due to CBA related infractions. After being unable to complete a trade with the Flyers, and no third party team stepping up to the plate to facilitate a deal, Philadelphia ultimately bought out DeAngelo’s contract making him a UFA.
The 27 year old blue liner posted 42pts (11G, 31A) across 70 games with the Flyers in 2022-23, but eventually fell out of favour with head coach John Tortorella. Originally selected 19th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft by Tampa Bay, DeAngelo now rejoins the club with whom he spent the 2021-22 season.
“Tony is an elite offensive defenseman who had a great season with us in 2021-22,” Carolina general manager Don Waddell said. “We wanted to re-sign him last summer, and now we’re thrilled to bring him back to Raleigh.”
The timing of the deal, and the manner in which it came about may have cost the former Sarnia Sting standout several million dollars however. As the deal with Philadelphia to acquire DeAngelo began to fall apart, the Hurricanes pivoted and signed UFA defender Dmitry Orlov to a 2 year/$15.5M contract as free agency opened.
Suddenly with little cap space to work with, it became clear that if DeAngelo wanted to return to Raleigh, that he would need to take a pay cut to do so. The $1.675M figure is a far cry from the $5M AAV he was making with the Flyers.
However, with the cap expected to jump by $4M+ next season, the Sewell, NJ native can re-enter the market as a free agent in the hopes of securing a long term deal as a 28 year old.
How DeAngelo performs, and how far Carolina advances in the playoffs will largely determine the term and length of the American’s next deal. Littered with off-ice issues ranging from clashes with coaches, to altercations with teammates, DeAngelo is an offensively gifted, but somewhat volatile locker room presence.
A strong season both on and off the ice will do wonders for the impending UFA and his future in the NHL.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Doug Kerr. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.