Former Rangers defenseman re-ups for 2 years with Islanders
Tony DeAngelo, a defenseman who spent four seasons with the New York Rangers before being traded in 2021, re-signed with the New York Islanders on Friday. The two-year deal carries an average annual value of $4.5 million, according to PuckPedia.
The 30-year-old had 35 points (five goals, 30 assists) in a career-high 76 games with the Islanders last season, his second with the club and 10th in the NHL. He finished third on the Isles in assists and was second among their defensemen in goals, points, power-play points (seven) and shots on goal (148).
The Islanders are DeAngelo’s fifth NHL team — not including the Tampa Bay Lightning, who selected him in the first round (No. 19 overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft. They traded him to the Arizona Coyotes a year later, and the Rangers acquired him in a trade on June 23, 2017.
The native of Sewell, New Jersey, split the 2017-18 season between the Rangers and Hartford of the AHL. He had eight points, all assists, in 32 games with New York before missing the final 12 games with an ankle injury.
DeAngelo’s best offensive season came in 2019-20, when he finished with 15 goals and 53 points in 68 games. He had his first NHL hat trick and scored five points in a 6-3 win against the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 9, 2020.
But the Rangers waived DeAngelo early in the 2020-21 season after he and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev got into a physical altercation outside the locker room following a 5-4 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 30, 2021. No one claimed DeAngelo, and he didn’t play the rest of the season.
“It was a tough game. He struggled, I struggled in the game. We’re playing against Pittsburgh and I’m coming down the tunnel. I yelled at Georgi, ‘Make a bleeping save!’ 100 per cent,” DeAngelo told Daily Faceoff in August 2024, admitting some blame for the altercation.
“If I didn’t yell at Georgi, Georgi wasn’t going to turn around and try to do anything, that’s a fact. Obviously, I started it. I wasn’t thinking what happened next was gonna happen, that was a surprise to me.”
Ex-Rangers defenseman DeAngelo re-signs with Islanders
After the Rangers bought out the last year of DeAngelo’s contract, the Carolina Hurricanes signed him in August 2021, and he put up 10 goals, 51 points and a plus-30 rating in 2021-22. He also had one goal and 10 points in 14 Stanley Cup Playoff games, including two assists in their six-game loss to the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Carolina traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers on July 23, 2022, and he had 11 goals and 42 points in 70 games despite being scratched several times down the stretch by coach John Tortorella. The Flyers bought out the last year of his contract in July 2023; the Hurricanes re-signed him and he had three goals and 11 points in 31 regular-season games, as well as two assists in nine playoff games — both in another six-game loss to the Rangers in the East Semifinals.
But after Carolina didn’t re-sign him in the summer of 2024, DeAngelo joined SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL. He had six goals and 32 points in 34 games before leaving Russia and returning to North America, where he signed with the Islanders on Jan. 24, 2025.
The Islanders re-signed him to a one-year deal last summer. He could’ve been an unrestricted free agent July 1.
In all, DeAngelo has 264 points (57 goals, 207 assists) in 482 NHL games with the Coyotes, Rangers, Hurricanes, Flyers and Islanders. He has 13 points (one goal, 12 assists) in 26 playoff games with the Rangers and Hurricanes.
