DeAngelo Growing Stale on Hurricanes’ Trade Block

Nothing has been predictable during DeAngelo’s two stints as a Hurricane. Now that he’s been on the auction block for a while, I think it would be a good idea to refresh our memories on how we got into this situation in the first place. Why do the Hurricanes have a power play specialist with a bargain contract bobbing in the water with no bites?

Don Waddell Takes a Gamble

When DeAngleo landed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport for the first time as a member of the Hurricanes, he had his fair share of baggage.

To be available for Carolina to sign on July 28, 2021, DeAngelo first needed to be bought out by the New York Rangers. His antics while in New York are well-documented. An article published by the Associated Press on Feb. 1, 2021, summarized the Rangers’ decision.

Tony DeAngelo has played his final game for the New York Rangers despite going unclaimed on waivers, after a warning from the organization about behavior and an undisclosed “incident” he was involved in, general manager Jeff Gorton said Monday.

The Rangers assigned DeAngelo to their taxi squad, but the 25-year-old defenseman won’t be around the team moving forward. The NHL’s other 30 teams passed on the opportunity to add DeAngelo when New York put him on waivers Sunday.

“We told a player that ‘Enough is enough, let’s move on,’” Gorton said. “I feel like this is the necessary move that we had to make.”

Jeff Gorton

“We’ve done a lot of background work on this player,” Hurricanes general manager (GM) Don Waddell said in a statement shortly after signing the player in 2021. “We are confident that he can be a positive addition to our group.”

Don’t let Waddell’s statement fool you. The decision-makers in Carolina might have had the confidence to gamble on DeAngelo in the short term, but they saw the risk in locking him down for more than a single season. The deal he had in New York would have paid him $5 million.

Having cleared waivers the previous season, it was clear no NHL team was willing to pay DeAngelo the king’s ransom he was getting to play for the Rangers. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have had a reputation as a frugal organization since it played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) as the New England Whalers in the 1970s.

Willing to work through the blowback that would inevitably come with a DeAngelo signing, the Hurricanes signed him to a one-year, $1 million show-me-contract. If Waddell was wrong and he wasn’t a “positive addition” to the team, they could just bury him in the minors and eat his $1 million cap hit for the single season. However, if Waddell was right, the contract could prove to carry one of the best values in the NHL.

Jaccob Slavin’s Linemate

A vacancy was created on the Hurricanes’ blue line when the team failed to re-sign Dougie Hamilton in the 2021 offseason. For the three prior seasons, Hamilton played on the team’s top defensive pairing with Jaccob Slavin. Enter 25-year-old DeAngelo.

Even after missing short stints of the season with an injury and COVID-19 diagnosis, DeAngelo still played a large role in the Hurricanes’ blue line setting franchise records. In 63 games, he collected 10 goals and 41 assists. Good enough to set a Hurricanes record for most points in a season by a defenseman.

His then-linemate Slavin is known for his shutdown abilities and gentlemanly play, winning the Lady Byng Trophy in 2021 and being named a finalist in 2022. Alongside DeAngleo, though, Slavin found a scoring touch few expected from the Denver, Colorado native. In 79 games, he connected on four goals and helped his teammates with 38 assists, setting a career-high.

Helped by fellow blueliner Brady Skjei setting his own career high that season, the Hurricanes’ defensive core combined for more points (200) in 2021-22 than ever before in franchise history. The previous record was held by the 1980-81 Hartford Whalers who combined for 196 points led by hockey royalty and future Hall of Famer Mark Howe, who registered 65 points that season.

Under the watchful eye of Hurricanes’ head coach Rod Brind’Amour, DeAngelo had an uneventful season off the ice.

A Gordie Howe hat trick – when a player scores a goal, is credited with an assist and drops the gloves in a single game – against the Chicago Blackhawks in late October turned fans inside PNC Arena into superfans chanting DeAngelo’s name.

“You know fans get into the game. They love that kind of stuff,” DeAngelo said in his post-game press conference after the Hurricanes defeated the Blackhawks 6-3. “So I appreciate that. That was very nice. You know, like you said there was a lot of feedback going both ways, positivity and negativity when I signed. Which I knew was going to happen no matter where I went. But I’m really appreciative tonight for that kind of ovation. It means more than the fans might think.”

Tony DeAngleo the RFA

“We were trying to talk about an extension and just couldn’t get it done,” Waddell said at a press conference on the second day of the NHL Draft in Montreal in 2022. “[We] couldn’t get any place with it. We had teams that were interested so we did our best to maximize the return value.”

Less than a year – 344 days to be exact – after signing with the Hurricanes, DeAngelo was on the move again. Asked if the team moved on from DeAngelo because of his requested extension length or the value, Waddell said, “more probably the money.”

Waddell was honest with the media at the draft, telling them that the Hurricanes’ front office was trying to re-sign DeAngelo late into the night before eventually deciding to send him to the Philadelphia Flyers with a seventh-round pick in that year’s draft in return for Philly’s fourth-round pick in 2022, a third-round pick in 2023, and a second-round pick in 2024.

“[DeAngelo] came in and did everything we asked him to do,” Waddell continued. “Overall, [he] carried himself very well. I speak very highly of him. Players liked him, coaches liked him, and you know, it’s not a player we were looking to move on from but it’s the way things work out. I wish Tony the best.”

It is incredibly important to realize that the Hurricanes didn’t want to move on from DeAngelo. Carolina’s front office didn’t sour on the player, just the asking price for his services. The situation was incredibly similar to Hamilton the year before. The only difference was that the Hurricanes still had control over DeAngelo’s rights and could pull value out of him after they chose to move forward without his services.

John Tortorella’s Flyers

Echoing Waddell from the previous offseason, Flyers’ then-GM Chuck Fletcher was confident about his choice to trade for DeAngelo.

“We’re very happy to add Tony to our team and I know he is very excited to join the Flyers,” Fletcher said in a statement announcing the trade. “We did our due diligence and we strongly believe in Tony and his ability to help our team. He is a right-handed shot who moves the puck extremely well and will drive offense from the back end for us.”

Fletcher agreed to a two-year, $10 million contract with DeAngelo shortly after acquiring his rights. Unlike the Hurricanes, Philly’s gamble didn’t pay off.

The Hockey News’ Ryan Quigley summed up DeAngelo’s year with the Flyers in an article published in July.

DeAngelo’s one season in Philadelphia was nothing short of a colossal failure. While he logged a respectable 42 points in 70 games, he also struggled mightily defensively and was unable to develop a healthy relationship with Flyers head coach John Tortorella. Tortorella benched DeAngelo for the Flyers’ final five games of the season, and at that point, it became clear the South Jersey native’s days in Philadelphia were numbered.

Ryan Quigley

Carolina Hurricanes Double Down

Friedman was the first to report on a potential trade that would send DeAngelo back to the Hurricanes.

Only after the Flyers and Hurricanes agreed on terms to send DeAngelo back to Carolina did the two organizations learn that the trade would not be approved by the league – at least not yet. As part of the deal, the Flyers would retain 50 percent of his $5 million salary. The Hurricanes were still unwilling to overpay, while the Flyers’ current GM Danny Briere was willing to take the hit as long as the player left town.

Unfortunately, for both sides, it had only been 352 days since the original trade was announced in Montreal. According to Rule 50.5(e)(iii)(c)(ii) of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) “under no circumstances may a Club reacquire, as part of a Retained Salary Transaction, the contract of a player who was on that Club’s Reserve List within the past calendar year.”

If the two sides still wanted to go through with the deal they’d have to wait until the one-year anniversary. In the meantime, the Hurricanes signed Russian blueliner Dmitry Orlov to a two-year contract signalling to fans and Flyers leadership that the deal might not move forward.

Waddell publicly hedged his bet. “[The Hurricanes] and Philly have a deal in principle,” he said to the media over a video call after announcing Orlov’s contract. “Just can’t be executed until a certain date. You know, we are not sure yet.”

In the end, the Flyers’ organization waited until seven days after Carolina was able to re-acquire DeAngelo before placing the defenseman on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout. For the second time in his still young NHL career, he cleared waivers and became the first NHLer to be bought out on two separate occasions, according to CapFriendly.

It was 373 days after DeAngelo originally signed with Carolina.

Carolina Re-Signs DeAngelo

“Tony is an elite offensive defenseman who had a great season with us in 2021-22,” Waddell said in a statement. “We wanted to re-sign him last summer, and now we’re thrilled to bring him back to Raleigh.” The Hurricanes agreed to a one-year $1.675 million contract.

In his statement, Waddell makes it clear that the Hurricanes expected DeAngleo to perform at the same level he did in 2021-22. There were only a few problems with that thought process. One, after a year away, the Hurricanes didn’t know if he could recreate his previous results. Two, after signing Orlov, the Hurricanes had a log jam on the blue line and didn’t have a spot for DeAngelo to slide into. Three, the Hurricanes upgraded their top defensive pairing with future Hall of Famer Brent Burns after trading DeAngleo to the Flyers.

The House Always Wins

We are a third of a way through the season and the Hurricanes are trying to trade DeAngelo. This season has proved to be the first real adversity the Hurricanes have dealt with since completing their rebuild and becoming a true contender for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Not that it’s purely DeAngelo’s fault. However, Brind’Amour’s delay in deciding on his third defensive pair without a doubt affected the chemistry required between Orlov and his current partner Jalen Chatfield.

We can use Pierre LeBrun as a second confirmation from an insider that DeAngelo has been offered to other clubs.

The Carolina Hurricanes’ Tony DeAngelo has been on the market for more than a month already, and Nashville Predators veteran Tyson Barrie’s recent trade request makes it two puck-moving, power-play guys with similar skill sets out there, both also pending unrestricted free agents.

The market has been soft for DeAngelo, who hasn’t been in the Hurricanes’ lineup since Nov. 18, but his bargain $1.675 million cap hit, one would think, should eventually entice a team depending on its needs.

From ‘LeBrun: Earlier-than-usual rumblings on NHL’s defense, goalie trade markets
The Athletic – Dec 8, 2023′

DeAngelo’s history makes him a tough acquisition for some teams. At least after his first stint in Carolina, he had positive results. Now, Waddell is asking teams to take the same gamble that the Flyers made last season and the Hurricanes repeated this season. Both of which have ended in disaster. How are you going to convince another NHL franchise to make the same mistake?

Buckle in for a wild turn of events to end DeAngelo’s time as a Hurricane. Without a crystal ball, I’m unable to tell you what’s going to happen but with DeAngelo’s history with the Hurricanes, I think we can agree it’s going to be filled with twists and turns.