|
Quick Hits: DeAngelo, TIFH |
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Hits: July 8, 2023
1) Today marks exactly one year since the Flyers acquired offensive defenseman Tony DeAngelo from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2022 fourth-round pick (defenseman Simon Forsmark), a 2023 third-round pick (San Jose Sharks selection center Brandon Svoboda, an incoming Boston University freshman) and a 2024 second-round pick. The Flyers also acquired a 2022 seventh-round pick (Alexis Gendron) in the deal.
Earlier this month, according to numerous reports, the Flyers and Hurricanes agreed to a trade that would send DeAngelo back to the Hurricanes. Philadelphia would also retain half of DeAngelo's $5 million cap hit in 2023-24 before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer. In return, the Flyers reportedly would receive the rights to 22-year-old University of Denver forward Massimo Rizzo.
According to reports, the National Hockey League refused to register the trade based on bylaws that, for salary cap circumvention reasons, ban a team from reacquiring a player in a "trade reversal" scenario when there is salary cap retention involved. After one full calendar year passes, the trade becomes acceptable.
While the disallowed trade violated the letter of the law for cap circumvention, it had nothing to do with the spirit of the rule. One would have to believe that the Flyers set out last summer to come up with a trade that only benefited Carolina: rent DeAngelo for a year at the extortionate cost of three Draft picks, then retain 50 percent salary in year two of a two-year deal in order to obtain a secondary prospect.
In reality, of course, the Flyers found themselves in a scenario where they felt compelled to subtract DeAngelo at any cost: even in such a lopsided trade-and-reverse scenario such as this one.
DeAngelo produced points at a reasonable pace on a goal-starved Flyers team in 2022-23 (11 goals, 42 points in 70 games) and brought some intensity and physical competitiveness. However, the negatives outweighed the positives. The Flyers struggled mightily to keep the puck out of their own net when DeAngelo was on the ice. They also still had the NHL's bottom-ranked power play (15.6 percent), although that aspect could not fairly be pinned on DeAngelo.
Over the course of the 2022-23 season, DeAngelo severely fell out of favor with head coach John Tortorella. It was a (not-unexpected) battle two strong-willed and sometimes combustible people who see the game quite differently. Late last season, things came to a head. Although the specific details were kept behind closed doors, the message was loud and clear: DeAngelo was scratched in each of the final five games of the 2022-23 season (including a game where the Flyers were shorthanded due to injuries and started just five defensemen).
For his part, on Exit Day, DeAngelo said that he'd like to give the relationship another try with the head coach in 2023-24. The Sewell, New Jersey, native said that he enjoyed playing for the team he grew up rooting for and wanted to stay. The Flyers organization clearly felt differently and had DeAngelo on the list of necessary subtractions regardless of trade return. Otherwise, the lopsided trade with Carolina would not have been agreed to by Philadelphia.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere has thus far declined to confirm or deny the deal. He left it at DeAngelo still being a Flyer "for now". However, Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell recently confirmed that there was a held-up trade with Philadelphia to reacquire DeAngelo and that he still expected the deal to go through once the one-year anniversary of the original trade was reached.
2) On a personal note, regardless of the player's outside reputation, I found DeAngelo to be accessible and easy to deal with last season from a media standpoint.
In good times and in bad last season, including when he was benched or when he had a costly defensive gaffe on a key play, DeAngelo never hid, delayed or deflected from answering questions. Sometimes he'd be contrarian in one sentence and then, in the next thing he said, agree with the very same premise he just disputed. Nevertheless, the bottom line was that he always there on the spot to face the music.
Over the years, several hockey people that I like and trust have told me that DeAngelo (whom they all consider a friend) is a good guy at heart with one major problem: his temper gets him in trouble. He will say and do things he quickly regrets and apologizes for profusely, but the damage is already done. I don't know DeAngelo personally well enough to independently confirm it but there is definitely a disconnect between the friendly, gregarious guy one sees on a day-to-day basis and the one who has been through two OHL clubs and five NHL organizations despite being a plus skater with demonstrable offensive talent.
With the possible exception of Joel Farabee, whose dad is originally from Bucks County and was a diehard Phillies fan before being drafted by the Flyers, there wasn't a more genuine Philly sports fan in the Flyers locker room this past season than DeAngelo. He'd regularly join in casual conversations about the Eagles, Phillies or 76ers. He also wasn't kidding about having grown up as a Flyers diehard: he could talk about players who suited up for the Flyers before he was even born (1995) and not just the stars like Eric Lindros or John LeClair.
DeAngelo is also great, on or off the ice, when he's around youth hockey players or kids in general: seemingly every bit patient and caring with them as he can be volatile in his own games. It can seem tough to reconcile the two things but I'll say here that I've met others like Tony around hockey. Zac Rinaldo is another such personality: quite easy to like when you seem them around day-to-day yet sometimes you can't help but cringe at the some of the needless situations that they've gotten themselves into -- with only themselves to blame -- when they've snapped as hockey players.
3) July 8 Flyers Alumni birthdays: Karl Dykhuis (1972), Eric Chouinard (1980). Additionally, current Flyers/Phantoms forward Bobby Brink celebrates his 22nd birthday today.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»