In year two of Tony DeAngelo’s time with the New York Rangers organization, he’s finally breaking through. Defensive concerns aside, he’s playing his way into the team’s future.
Anytime two different organizations give up on a player before their 23rd birthday it should be a major cause for concern. Considering teams rely on first-round picks as either assets or a pipeline to quality talent, giving up on one is a major taboo. In fact, it’s why former first-round picks hang around in the league for so long, teams will give them the benefit of the doubt.
In the case of Tony DeAngelo and the New York Rangers, it’s been an uphill climb over these two years with the organization. As a former pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning organization, the New Jersey native was obviously talented as an amateur player. With one of the best scouting networks on the planet, the Lightning obviously saw something worth having.
For all of DeAngelo’s silky skating and crisp passing, the glaring flaw in his game was decision making. When it comes to a mobile defenseman, knowing when and when not to jump up into the play in the offensive zone can be the difference between a long and healthy NHL career or riding the bus in the AHL.
Under head coach David Quinn, DeAngelo is living up to his potential. The two strengths of his game, skating and passing make him one of the best defenseman in the entire NHL when it comes to zone entries and exits.
Understanding modern hockey
Although there are some outliers, the conventional wisdom in today’s league is oriented around puck possession. If a team controls the puck, they can’t be scored on and inherently should have more scoring chances. Zone entry and exit success stats are a way of understanding just how good a particular player is at maintaining control of the puck.
So, starting with zone entries, DeAngelo succeeds at entering the offensive zone with the puck 100 percent of the time, the highest clip of any defenseman in the entire league. The New Jersey native is also in the 99th percentile for successful zone entries, meaning that he controls the puck entering the zone better than 99 percent of defenseman.
Both of those stats overwhelmingly show significant growth in a player whose decision making was considered a major red flag. This level of competence at gaining the offensive zone shows a player that makes the right decision more often than not and excels in one particular area of the game.
Transition play is the key to the modern NHL. If a team’s defensemen cannot help the forwards advance the puck through the neutral zone, they are not doing enough to contribute. Simply put, defensive defensemen are one-dimensional players and a liability on the ice.
In addition to being an excellent defenseman at gaining the zone, DeAngelo is also one of the best at exiting the defensive zone. Successful zone exits enable the team to transition quickly and begin breaking into the offensive zone.
For perspective, DeAngelo is better than San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson at successfully exiting the defensive zone. Granted, Karlsson does play more minutes per game against tougher competition and is still in the upper 90s in terms of percentile.
The hole
The one glaring whole in DeAngelo’s game is his play in the defensive zone. Although he’s strong at exiting the zone, he’s amongst the worse at defending his own blue line. Meaning that when the other team is trying to enter the Ranger zone, the New Jersey native fails to prevent a clean zone entry and allows the opponent to set up.
DeAngelo’s ceiling as a player will be stunted if he cannot improve this aspect of his game. As of now, he’s a fine second pair defenseman on a pretty bad Rangers team. However, on a good team, he’d be more of a niche player. This growth cannot solely be attributed to coaching, but the change behind the bench definitley had an impact.
There are still those hair pulling moments with DeAngelo both as a player and a person. When Quinn had to healthy scratch him a couple of weeks ago due to “maturity issues,” it came in the midst of a personal hot streak for the player. The defenseman was in the midst of a multi-game point streak, but Quinn didn’t care.
Tough love might not be for everyone, but it certainly is for DeAngelo.