Success or failure, it’s all up to Tony DeAngelo
By Steve Paulus
Tony DeAngelo signed a one year contract with the New York Rangers for $925k. It’s now up to him to parlay that short term deal into a big payday next summer.
Tony DeAngelo signed his contract extension after a holdout that kept him out of training camp for a little over a week. As a restricted free agent, the 23-year old had little leverage once the New York Rangers tendered their $874k qualifying offer to him in June.
He was in a no-win situation with the Rangers tight against the salary cap and unable to offer him more than the $925k he signed for. How tight a cap situations? With the DeAngelo contract done the Rangers have all of $235k in cap space going into the season, a pretty severe limitation.
As training camp began and the team proceeded without DeAngelo, it offered an opportunity for players like Adam Fox, Brendan Smith, Joe Morrow and Joey Keane to strut their stuff and pitch their services as DeAngelo’s replacement.
It was an illogical holdout and DeAngelo’s signing returns him to the team so he can be part of the longterm planning for this season.
Where he stands
Going into training camp DeAngelo was clearly headed to be on the second pair defense, teamed either with Marc Staal or Libor Hajek. Adam Fox was the third righthanded shooting defenseman and was destined for lighter minutes in his rookie season.
Fox showed an awful lot of ability at the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City and continued that in the first preseason game on Wednesday. Fox did so well, he appeared well on his way to potentially supplanting DeAngelo’s role in the defense scheme.
It’s no small wonder that DeAngelo saw the light and signed his contract. Now that he is with the team, his job is to prove that he deserves second pair minutes and top time on the power play. In other words, what he had appeared to earn with his play last season.
Just as with Jacob Trouba who signed a $56 million contract this summer, it is time for DeAngelo to put up or shut up. He needs to improve on his career highs from last season in games played, assists and points and to score more than his personal best of five goals.
He needs to be the Tony DeAngelo who played 17 straight games from February 4 to March 9. In that stretched he had assists in eight straight games and notched 13 assists in the span including five on the power play.
Of course, that stretch of games was bookmarked by being benched for “maturity issues” at the beginning and because of a “small reason” at the end. Whenever DeAngelo is a healthy scratch, questions are raised about his previous history. Until that ends he will have a shadow hanging over him, warranted or not.
The best case scenario
Next summer he will be an arbitration eligible restricted free agent. There is a best case scenario for DeAngelo and it could lead to big things for the 23 year old if some recent signings are any indication.
Let’s say that DeAngelo continues his progress under the tough love of David Quinn. After that two game benching, he average 0.62 points per game the rest of the season. In a full campaign, that adds up to a 51 point season a total reached by only 12 NHL defensemen last year and even one more than Trouba.
Just for kicks, let’s assume that DeAngelo takes advantage of his newfound leadership role. He plays on the second defensive pair and gets a lot of time quarterbacking the power play. He actually supplants Trouba on the first power play unit, allowing Trouba to spend more time as the shutdown defenseman playing heavy minutes at even strength and killing penalties.
Healthy scratches are a thing of the past and DeAngelo revels in feeding the new snipers on the Rangers. He finishes with ten goals and 51 points and continues to display the feistiness and combative attitude that has made him beloved by the fans.
He goes into the off-season ready to sign a new contract for long term having proved he is the real thing. Who are the players he will comparing himself to and what are they getting paid?