Flyers Place Tony DeAngelo On Unconditional Waivers To Buyout
It’s been no secret that Tony DeAngelo‘s days in Philadelphia have been numbered for a while now. Ever since being healthy scratched for the final five games of the 2022-23 season, the high-risk, high-reward defenseman’s spot on the team’s roster was tenuous at best. Then, news broke in late June the Flyers had agreed on a deal to send DeAngelo back to the Carolina Hurricanes — the team they acquired him and a 2022 7th from for the hefty price of a 2022 4th, 2023 3rd and 2024 2nd round pick.
In truth, the news wasn’t very surprising. With just one year left on his contract, DeAngelo wasn’t going to be around when the Flyers see themselves returning to contention. The Hurricanes didn’t trade DeAngelo because they didn’t like him as a player — they just didn’t like him as a $5 million one. With the Flyers able to retain salary, DeAngelo became much more palatable — apparently enough for a return to Raleigh.
The NHL, however, would not let the trade go through, at least not initially. Trading a player to the team that traded them with retained salary within a year is technically against league rules. Both teams had good reasons for an exemption, though. DeAngelo was still an RFA when the Flyers acquired him, and the GM who traded for him (Chuck Fletcher) is no longer with the organization. Still, the league wouldn’t relent, forcing the teams to wait until early July before they could complete the transaction.
But the trade never came to pass. Maybe the Hurricanes got cold feet on returning DeAngelo, a player with clear weaknesses on the ice and a checkered past off of it, to their organization. Perhaps the signing of defenseman Dmitry Orlov to a two-year contract with a $7.75 million cap hit changed Carolina’s calculus. The Hurricanes are also in the Erik Karlsson trade conversation, who is a much, much, much better version of DeAngelo.
Regardless of the reason, the trade is dead. And on Friday, DeAngelo’s time in Philadelphia officially met the same fate.
Buying out DeAngelo will cost the Flyers $1,666,667 against the cap this year and next, per CapFriendly. It’s a bit curious why the Flyers didn’t just hold onto DeAngelo rather than incurring a cap penalty in 2024-25, when they are more likely to be competitive. However, the Flyers aren’t expecting to be a playoff team in either of the next two years, so the odds of that penalty having a significant effect are low.
Perhaps this is a testament to how poor DeAngelo’s relationship with head coach John Tortorella had become. Kevin Hayes‘ future in Philadelphia went away as he and Tortorella failed to see eye-to-eye. The same certainly happened with DeAngelo. Though Tortorella praised his competitiveness at times, it was clear he was never really satisfied with DeAngelo’s play. After starting him on the top pair with Ivan Provorov, DeAngleo’s ice time decreased throughout the year. He was even healthy scratched earlier in the year for performance reasons.
DeAngelo’s buyout officially ends a Flyers tenure doomed from the start. The logic behind the trade that brought him to Philadelphia was unsound. The Flyers were not in a position where trading three draft picks for a short-term fix made sense. The second-rounder they send to Carolina next year will likely be a top-40 pick. DeAngelo did play well for the Hurricanes in 2021-22, but that’s because he had the luxury of skating next to Jaccob Slavin. Provorov, while good in the past, certainly was not on Slavin’s level. And handing top-pair minutes to a player with such glaring defensive deficiencies is rarely a good idea.
But then again, the Flyers had lots of poor ideas during the last few years. This summer has largely been about picking up the pieces and figuring out how to move forward. Buying out DeAngelo is just the latest step the team is taking to reach that goal.
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