Fantasy Hockey: Tony DeAngelo Is Back In Carolina
This might be one of those rare instances where a signing has more of a fantasy impact than an on-ice impact. Tony DeAngelo is back in Carolina and fantasy managers should be overjoyed by this news. How should you value DeAngelo in fantasy now that he’s back with the Canes?
I’ve had DeAngelo on my winning fantasy team each of the last two years. What people need to understand is that it is imperative to target defensemen that control the powerplay. You don’t bring in DeAngelo unless you plan on doing that because he’s trash defensively. DeAngelo is expected to be stashed in third pair minutes but will carry the offensive load with the man advantage. That’s his skillset and he’s really good at it.
Let’s throw last year out the window despite the fact that DeAngelo was actually useful in a bad situation. Back in 2021, the New Jersey native posted 51 points in 64 games with Carolina. In 2022, that would have ranked 19th of all defensemen. In 2021, that 51-point total was good enough for 15th. That’s while missing 18 games.
Carolina should sport their best team in 2023. The blue line they have is dominant. They just added Dmitry Orlov to a team that just made the Conference Finals. If anything, DeAngelo should have more freedom to be that riverboat gambler and put up points. Having Orlov as your D-man partner sounds good to me!
We know that Sean Allen at ESPN is brain dead when it comes to fantasy hockey so let’s be ahead of the curve. DeAngelo is going to be ranked way too low in fantasy hockey ahead of the 2023 NHL Season. Make sure to snag him. Yes, he stinks defensively but none of that matters in fantasy.
