Editor’s note: Revised to include a rumor about a locker room altercation that is unconfirmed.
The New York Rangers quietly announced that they had placed Tony DeAngelo on waivers today. It came in a tweet reporting on the roster moves on the team.
Not on ice today: DeAngelo (waivers), Johnson (day-to-day, lower body), Blackwell (7-10 days, upper body) and Georgiev (maintenance).
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 31, 2021
What does it mean ? It means that DeAngelo is destined to spend some time on the taxi squad. In order to get placed on the taxi squad, a waivers eligible player must clear them, as if he was going to the AHL. If they want to give Libor Hajek or Tony Bitetto a shot on the active roster, they would need to move someone to the taxi squad, if anything, just for cap purposes.
What it doesn’t mean is that the team has given up on him. They are gambling that no one will put in a claim on a defenseman who is off to a horrible start with a plus/minus rating of -6 and only one assist and who has some questions about his character, deserved or not.
If DeAngelo was making less than his $4.8 million salary, he could be claimed,but only eight teams in the NHL have that much cap space left so the odds that he will go are slim to none.
DeAngelo had a very bad night against Pittsburgh. Despite assisting on Artemi Panarin‘s power play goal,he was a -3 on the night. Already benched for two games after taking a bad penalty in the home opener, it looks like the team has lost patience with him.
*There are rumors that there was a postgame altercation involving DeAngelo, but nothing has been confirmed about that. It could have been a result of the miscommunication between Georgiev and DeAngelo in the overtime that could have prevented the team from clearing the puck. Their inability to get a change led to the game winning goal by Sidney Crosby. This is all pure speculation.
In other news, Colin Blackwell will be out 7-10 days with an upper body injury, bad news for the Blueshirts as he had been on of the few bright spots this season.
Stay tuned for more fallout from the DeAngelo move. This is not the end of DeAngelo’s career with the Rangers, but it is definitely a step in the wrong direction for him.