Moving Tony DeAngelo to the left side next season won’t be easy

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There has been a lot of talk about moving Tony DeAngelo to the left side for next season. The 25 year-old defenseman is no stranger to playing his offside as he did for many years in the OHL for the Sarnia Sting.

Matter of fact, many offensive defenseman prefer playing their off side because their stick’s are in the middle of the ice. It does make it more difficult in the defensive zone, so there are pros and cons to everything.

Why move DeAngelo to the left side?

tony deangelo move to left side
Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports)

New York’s highest scoring rearguard is also on record with open to moving to the left side. The primary reason for moving DeAngelo to the left is a simple one. They want to get him into the top four without dropping Adam Fox to the third pair.

Also, beyond Ryan Lindgren the Rangers don’t have a left defenseman that can play top four minutes. Newly signed Jack Johnson was meant to stabilize the third pair on the left side, not replace Marc Staal.

Meanwhile, the Rangers are hoping at least one young defenseman claims a spot on left defense next season. As of right now, Libor Hajek has the inside track to win the job, but Tarmo Reunanen is going to get a hard look too.

K’Andre Miller will be a top four lefty for the Rangers defense. However, he would only add to the cap woes caused by so many performance bonuses. It would also be smart not to rush him and give Miller one season in the AHL.

No need to force a move

The Rangers are also not in a position to move DeAngelo or Fox to the left. That’s because the only other right handed blue-liner they could call up is Darren Raddysh.

They also don’t have the luxury of signing anyone else until they settle their cases with Ryan Strome and Brendan Lemieux. Without knowing how much they have left, they can’t make any potential right handed defenseman an offer.

So for now, the right side of the Rangers defense will very likely look exactly as it did last season.

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By Anthony Scultore

Anthony Scultore has been covering the New York Rangers and the NHL since 2014. His work also appears at... More about Anthony Scultore

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