New York Rangers: The team is married to Tony DeAngelo

The New York Rangers are stuck between a rock and a hard place with the future of defenseman Tony DeAngelo.

The National Hockey League is unforgiving when it comes to blunders. If a general manager swings one bad trade, it can define them for the remainder of their time in the sport. Peter Chiarelli is with another organization and still has to live with the trades he made as G.M. of the Bruins. The point being, one bad trade can stick with you forever.

While it is early to call the Derek Stepan trade with the Arizona Coyotes a failure, New York Rangers’ G.M. Jeff Gorton has to be sweating a bit. The trade was Stepan and backup goaltender Antti Raanta for the number seven overall pick in the 2017 draft and DeAngelo.

The fact Arizona was willing to trade DeAngelo less than a year after acquiring him should have been a tremendous red flag. The team that originally drafted the New Jersey native, the Tampa Bay Lightning, were willing to take a second round pick, Libor Hajek, for a first round pick, DeAngelo, is telling.

Let’s unpack that for a second, less than a year after selecting a player, a team with an excellent track record of developing players in house was already convinced DeAngelo was never going to get it. That does not even get into the character issues that the defenseman had in amateur hockey.

In essence, Gorton was banking on his organization’s ability to bring along the defenseman as both a player and a person. It is early, but the jury is still out and trending towards a hung jury.

Last year

The elephant in the room with DeAngelo as far as on the ice was always his defensive abilities or the lack there of. An excellent passer with a strong shot, the defenseman was always offensively gifted. Even at the NHL level last year, the Rangers were willing to give him ice time solely based on one part of his game.

Right handed defenseman are at a premium in the NHL, so one that has offensive upside is a lottery ticket.

However, the team scratched their ticket and only won 1$ even though they paid five for it. In 32 games at the NHL level last season DeAngelo posted eight points with non-existent defense. Aside from physically being weak on the puck, the defenseman had no positional awareness as a player.

During a game last season when DeAngelo was paired with Ryan McDonagh, the Rangers’ captain pointed at his partner’s man and the New Jersey native outright ignored the coverage. Of course, DeAngelo’s man scored on an odd man rush.

Steps forward

While last season ended with a broken ankle for DeAngelo, it also presented a serious dilemma. The Rangers were pretty much stuck with the defenseman no matter what. A former first round pick with his third organization in three years that cannot play defense and suffered a serious injury has pretty much no value.

Sure, New York could probably get something for DeAngelo, it would be pennies on the dollar compared to what the team originally gave up. Organizations are always willing to take flyers on high draft picks hoping that all the player needs is a change of scenery to put it together.

As for the immediate future, DeAngelo had a strong preseason and looked more engaged defensively. Yet, it is unclear whether or not the defenseman made the team because he would have to clear waivers or head coach David Quinn genuinely believed he deserved to be there.

At practice the other day, DeAngelo was skating on the fourth defensive pair along side Frederik Claesson. Typically, this would mean both were not going to dress for the next game. But, being that there are still a few days before opening night, this may change.

There is an opportunity for the defenseman to make an impact and stick around this season. In a rebuilding season, the team can let players make mistakes and not worry too much about the final result of the game. The Rangers need to take DeAngelo’s training wheels off in hopes of making a NHL regular.

For better or worse, the Rangers and DeAngelo are tied at the hip. Whether or not the defenseman ever puts it all together will determine just how happy both parties are.