New York Rangers must keep Tony DeAngelo at all costs

How times change. Tony DeAngelo has morphed from a disposable asset for the New York Rangers into a cornerstone piece of the long-term future of this franchise.

DeAngelo is enjoying a breakout year for the New York Rangers and he has put himself in line for a huge payday in the summer.

Set to become a pending Restricted Free Agent in the summer, the defenseman currently carries a cap hit of $925,000, although his new contract will blow that out of the water and then some.

The million dollar question at play here, quite literally, is whether it will be the Rangers who will be shelling out to make DeAngelo a very rich man.

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A year ago I would have been quick to suggest that DeAngelo would be one of the first to be shipped out of the building, especially if there were a cluster of other players that need re-signing, as is the case this year.

However, things change quickly in sports and, in my opinion at least, DeAngelo now finds himself in a situation where he should be considered a must-keep asset.

That is a far cry from where the talented blueliner once was in his hockey career, but it is just a testament to how far he has come this year.

DeAngelo is carving out one hell of a career-year with 37 points (12 goals, 25 assists) in 48 games, good for fourth on the team, while he also recorded a five-point against the New Jersey Devils on Jan, 9.

He has quarterbacked the power play well with 12 points, while the 24-year-old is averaging 19:06 minutes of total ice time per game as he continues to establish himself as a high-end top-four defenseman in the NHL.

Granted, DeAngelo isn’t always the most reliable in his own end and he can give you a minor heart attack on occasions, as backed up by his 52 giveaways this year.

But, with the NHL built on speed, young talent and offensive prowess, DeAngelo is your prototype modern-day defenseman and he appears to have a high ceiling which means the best could be to come.

Only five defensemen in the NHL have scored more goals this year and not by a lot  (Zach Werenski leads with 15), while only seven have recorded more points.

All that backs up just what an outstanding season DeAngelo is having, while he’s doing for the Rangers what no blueliner has done since the legendary Brian Leetch, which just sums it up.

Of course, with success comes demand and reward and, as already mentioned, DeAngelo will be commanding the big bucks come the off-season.

Given what he’s doing this year DeAngelo deserves to be paid and you can never blame athletes for chasing a big payday in order to secure their future.

The difficult part here is that the Rangers are projected to have around $16 million in cap space in the summer, but they will need to split that between a handful of players.

Chris Kreider, Ryan Strome, Jesper Fast, Alexandar Georgiev and Brendan Lemieux are all set to hit the open market in the summer, although at least two of those four will be traded at the Trade Deadline.

But, as detailed by Steve Paulus in a piece that you can read here, the deals being given to other defensemen around the NHL will drive the price up for the Rangers when it comes to thrashing out a new deal for DeAngelo.

Simply put, it looks like both parties are on a collision course to a deal that would come in at around $6 or $7 million.

That is obviously a rather large piece of the pie and it would complicate matters for the Blueshirts in terms of trying to keep their other assets.

But, from my point of view the New York Rangers are currently rebuilding with the vision of becoming a powerhouse in the National Hockey League again.

In order to be successful in this league, let alone to do it consistently, you need uber-talented players all over the ice and DeAngelo has the potential to become a high-end top-four defenseman in the majors.

He’s riding a tantalizing trajectory right now and with the way the game is going in terms of offense being king, DeAngelo is primed to reign supreme for the foreseeable.

And the Rangers could regret letting someone in the ilk of DeAngelo out of their grasp.

Granted, they do boast a plethora of stud prospects on the blueline and they are hardly in short supply in that area but, like I’ve already mentioned, DeAngelo is the kind of offensive defenseman this storied franchise has been craving since the Brian Leetch days.

You have to build around foundational pieces like that.

Yes, the cap situation is a lot more complicated than that and the Rangers need to forecast for the foreseeable and worry about years ahead rather than just this season.

Plus, the fact that DeAngelo could well go to arbitration again may well force the Rangers into cutting bait before they get into another uncomfortable situation with their asset as they did last summer.

However, DeAngelo is becoming the offensive lynchpin that every team needs on the blueline in the modern-day NHL, and the New York Rangers have to start locking up their premier talent if they are to achieve their ambition of climbing to the top of the mountain and dominating again.

Tony DeAngelo is a major piece of this puzzle going forward and he should be top priority among the plethora of players the Rangers need to pay.