Saturday: DeAngelo has cleared waivers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports, paving the way for the buyout to be completed.
Friday: It appears the rumored trade between the Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes won’t be happening after all. Today, the Flyers placed defenseman Tony DeAngelo on unconditional waivers, which CapFriendly initially clarified is for the purpose of contract termination. The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor later contradicted CapFriendly’s initial report, claiming DeAngelo’s waiver placement is for the purposes of a buyout, which was later confirmed.
After the Flyers acquired DeAngelo’s negotiating rights from the Hurricanes last summer and promptly signed him to a two-year, $10MM deal, his relationship with head coach John Tortorella became tenuous, culminating in a string of healthy scratches to end the season. Reporting suggested the Flyers and Hurricanes had worked out a deal to send DeAngelo back to Raleigh this offseason, which would have involved the Flyers retaining half of DeAngelo’s $5MM cap hit on the final season of his contract and receiving center prospect Massimo Rizzo in return. However, the league blocked the trade at the time, claiming it circumvented the salary cap, and didn’t permit the deal to go through until July 8, 2023, exactly one year after the initial trade, which sent DeAngelo’s rights to Philadelphia.
The trade never actually went through, though, and now DeAngelo will find himself free to sign with any team that will have him – including Carolina. The buyout option became available to the Flyers after settling with forward Noah Cates before his arbitration hearing.
The buyout will cost the Flyers $1.67MM against the cap for the next two seasons compared to a one-time $2.5MM cap hit next year via salary retention. While the team is in the throes of a rebuild and doesn’t anticipate spending to the salary cap, the decision to buy DeAngelo out rather than trade him does offer slightly more short-term financial relief.
DeAngelo is an elite offensive-minded defender but a rather significant defensive liability, which chiefly contributed to his fallout with Tortorella in Philadelphia. When taking into consideration he’s played on three teams in the past three seasons and has now been bought out twice in that time frame, it seems unlikely he’ll find any long-term commitments on the open market.
Moving on from DeAngelo will certainly shift more point-producing burden onto youngster Cam York, who looked quite capable last season with 20 points in 54 games. The 22-year-old signed a two-year, $3.2MM extension with the Flyers earlier this week.
DeAngelo, 27, led Flyers defensemen in scoring last season with 42 points in 70 games. It was his third straight full season posting more than 40 points – he played just six games in 2020-21 before getting involved in a post-game altercation with then-teammate Alexandar Georgiev, which resulted in a waiver placement and assignment to the team’s taxi squad for the remainder of the season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
@Josh – Hopefully, the “More to come…” includes the rest of the sentence/paragraph littering the old cutting room floor. :) You wonder why the Flyers signed him, if (seemingly) Torts didn’t agree with the decision.
@Mac – Interesting discussion on the SiriusXM channel today about this. Apparently the Flyers wanted a Canes prospect that Waddell didn’t want to part with, thus no trade was made. But now Waddell gets to bring back Tony D for a much lower cost than if the Flyers just retained some of his salary, so shrewd move by Waddell if this all works out.
TBH there’s an argument that an extra retention spot is worth more, but unless the team plans to use the cap savings I don’t see why you wouldn’t wait until the deadline to see if someone bites. CAR already has.
@Gbear – Sometimes that Don Waddell guy is sneaky good. This is the kind of trade snafu that happens often enough, but nowadays only seems to get the press when it involves a really big-name player or two. Of course, Tony D. needs to get his complete game together before somebody tries to ship him to the European Tour.
Another team that “disagreed with his politics” I guess…because the part where every single team he’s ever been on has gotten rid of him, including one that has now paid to do so, can’t possibly be a reflection of his character as an individual.
LOL!!!!! They knew his “politics” before they traded for and extended him! Jerks can be of any political persuasion!
You are a prime example! LOL!!!!!!
@JohnnyZ – Indeed!
Wayne Gretzky played on 5 different professional teams, also “can’t possibly be a reflection of his character as an individual”, it’s a business.
Who cares what his politics are. He wasn’t a Torts kind of guy, neither was Hayes and they are out. Torts wants guys that give a 110% all the time on both ends and would be willing to slice their jugular to win a game. Only about 35% of the league can play for Torts and be “One Of His Guys”. This is why coaches like him have short life spans with teams. Though D’Angelo was a bad pickup from the jump.
Show me the team that literally begged to have someone take #99 off their hands. It’s happened with Tony how many times now? Bad comp.
@polish – not in this case. Gretzky wasn’t waived. This is the second time D’Angelo has been cut with a contract still going. Can’t think of many teams cutting their top offensive defenseman on a decent contract for “business” reasons. He’s apparently a cancer in the locker room and not popular with teammates…or coaches.
Where does it say they disagreed with his politics? A lot of players are pretty conservative. They just added Marc Staal who wouldn’t wear a pride jersey, so I’m sure that would be worse that DeAngelo’s opinions on social media years ago.
Man, I lived in Philly for a while. Seemed like a hard city to get kicked out of.
John Tortorella squanders another asset.
3 teams in 3 years with 2 buyouts. Hardly an asset. We knew this wasn’t going to work. Another Fletcher failure
I hear the team in Mar-a-Lago needs a defenseman/valet/doorman
/catch-up management and cleanup
/ketchup, clean up crew
I hear the White House needs a White Powder clean up crew!
I did open the door.
What’s Don Jr. up to?
Hiding from his corrupt dad and airhead wife
Rent free
“Bought Out By Two Teams Before 30” sounds like an ABC Afterschool Special from the 70s.
MAGA boy is the FIRST person ever to be bought out by two teams in the bio era?
DeAngelo reminds me of a line from a long ago Bill Cosby comedy album: “There’s something wrong with that boy.”
Racism is the answer.
Takes one to know one!
WHAT?!?!?!? It just can’t be because his team/teams are tired of him and his antics.
Boy cries wolf!
Flyers are so screwed, look at all those deals they have to get out of. Retaining on Hayes, DeAngelo buyout, so many other contracts that they need to move that will keep them in the not bad enough to tank, not good enough to contend no man’s land.
The Flyers were quite bad last year and moved off of three of their better players (even if that’s not saying a whole lot). Yes, Atkinson and Coots will probably play this year, but that just means you have more assets to deal. Look at the D corps. This team will bleed goals.
By the time the rebuild is done the money will be off the books for most of these bad contracts.
You have to think that teams will wise up and see that adding a player with offensive ability but a total lack of character is a bad idea. I’m not even mentioning his poor defensive play. I remember when Philly signed him and how Torts was super supportive. That lasted less than a year. Multiple suspensions in the OHL for violating the leagues harassment and abuse policy (one incident involved a teammate), multiple suspensions in the OHL for abuse of officials, Tampa parted ways with him for behavioral issues (more abuse of officials) and poor defensive ability in 2016. His time with the Yotes lasted less than a year which included him getting suspended for physical assault of a referee. Rangers waived him after more behavioral issues stemming from undisciplined play and fighting with a teammate. He lasted less than a year with the Canes, ditto with the Flyers. His recent suspension in March 2023 for spearing a guy in the privates shows he remains the same little undisciplined Anthony Deangela.
Who would have thought that using so much capital to acquire Deangelo and Ristolainen would turn out miserably for the Flyers?
It has to be sarcasm, but everyone.
Not Chuck Fletcher!!!
Everyone assumes he’ll be a Cane for cheap now, yeh?
Hurricanes would be the best fit for DeAngelo. Only team where he seemed to keep his act together. But DeAngelo is not the best fit for the Hurricanes. They are rumored to still be in for Karlsson and of course there are still other options available. Only thing I’d take for granted is: it will be a 1 year deal if he manages to land an NHL contract
LOL people think it politics. After this many teams . The guy is jerk regardless of politics. At least Carolina is giving him a friend. Lemieux will probably be best buddies in no time.
If that were true no team he was already on would try and bring him back so soon like Carolina.
Someone want to tell us again what a great asset DeAngelo is, and how all these teams are lining up to acquire him?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Yet another player that Torts can’t get along with. He is such an anchor of a coach. He never gets his teams anywhere meaningful. I can’t understand why so many teams line up after his current team shows him the door.
He has won everywhere he has coached as long as he has been given a few years. Has his name on the Cup. You don’t seem to know this.
He does have success as a coach, but his style eventually wears players out. You cannot build the foundation for a long-term successful organization around his teams. He leaves teams in terrible shape, beaten down, and with vastly different rosters filled with “his players” that aren’t his eventual successor’s players, leading to more roster instability. But, sure, for those three, four years, you’ll probably make the playoffs.