The Philadelphia Flyers have placed defenseman Tony DeAngelo on unconditional waivers Friday the team announced.
The move comes on the heels of extensive trade negotiations with the Carolina Hurricanes falling through in recent weeks. The team is now likely to buyout DeAngelo should he clear waivers, ending the 27 year old’s time with the club.
The New Jersey native previously signed a 2 year $10M contract with the Flyers in 2022. With $5M remaining on the books for this upcoming season, Philadelphia would incur a cap penalty of $1.67M in each of the next two seasons should they buyout his one remaining year.
Originally taken 19th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, DeAngelo has registered 199pts (45G, 154A) across 340 NHL contests. His most recent season with Philadelphia was productive offensively as he tallied 11G and 31A in 70 games, but defensively his advanced metrics and -27 +/- rating left much to be desired.
Should he clear waivers, Carolina is likely to circle back on the blue liner later this summer as they look to shore up their back end for a deep playoff run. Negotiations with the Flyers hit a snag due to a loophole in the CBA. Both clubs appealed to the league in the lead up to the NHL draft, however they were ultimately denied an exemption to complete the trade.
Carolina currently features Brent Burns, Jalen Chatfield, Dmitry Orlov, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei and Jaccob Slavin on the back end. With Orlov having joined the mix via free agency, it’s now possible that the Hurricanes are content with their defense corps, meaning DeAngelo could be required to take a substantial discount if he wants to rejoin his former team.
The former Sarnia Sting standout fell out of favour with Flyers coach John Tortorella last year, being healthy-scratched for the team’s final handful of games. When pressed as to why Philadelphia was benching the blue liner, Tortorella responded “He knows where he stands with me…And that’s where we’re gonna go with it.”
DeAngelo was also previously bought out by the New York Rangers after getting into an altercation with goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Mnweme. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.