Trading Tony DeAngelo may be the eventual outcome

DeAngelo (Photo: Jim McIsaac)

Rangers fans hoping for Tony DeAngelo to have a long career on Broadway after an impressive season, may eventually be disappointed. Training camp is underway and DeAngelo as we told you on August 5th, wasn’t likely to show up.

No Surprise

The first big clue dropped on Twitter when Tony DeAngelo liked a tweet noting he wouldn’t sign for around $1M. His qualifying offer, which expired in mid July is for less than that. DeAngelo has since unliked the tweet but screen captures from reliable sources were sent to Forever Blueshirts and presented below.

DeAngelo liked tweet (Twitter)

While this is was somewhat eyebrow raising at the time, it certainly proves that DeAngelo was serious. One would think the logical move is to sign the one year deal under $1M and have another productive season. Then he can get the deal he is looking for next summer with the added advantage of having arbitration rights.

Of course, there is still the possibility of a team giving DeAngelo an offer sheet. What about his childhood favorite team the Flyers or hometown Devils? Alain Vigneault did coach DeAngelo for 32 games in 2018 and the Rangers limited cap space make them ripe for one. If a team were to offer between 2-3M it would put Gordon in a bind because he only has about 2M to play with. And to make matters worse, the compensation would only be a 2nd round pick.

DeAngelo knows he’s worth it

The young defenseman basically put up a half a point per game last season and the Rangers bought out the only legit threat to his spot on defense. Once Shattenkirk was removed from the equation, there was no other right handed defenseman in the organization to pose a threat to DeAngelo. Now, if I can see it, you know his agent does too and that means this is going to drag on. Per Larry Brooks’ latest, his agent states that they and the Rangers are looking at “different solutions” and the gap between the two sides is very large.

The biggest issue in trying to figure this out is we don’t know is how much DeAngelo is looking for. One thing is certain at this moment, the Rangers have only about $2M in cap space. They can’t use all of it on DeAngelo because then they won’t be able to make an emergency call up without someone going on LTIR.

All these factors are starting to point to the Rangers possibly trading DeAngelo before the start of the season. Maybe a sign and trade? It’s not like the team doesn’t have options on defense. If he is moved veteran Brendan Smith would likely play on the 3rd pairing with Libor Hajek come opening night. Smith is a left handed shot but should be able to play on his off side in the short term.

A trade is the most likely scenario (eventually)

The truth is that whether they trade Tony now, at the deadline or next season, that’s the eventual conclusion. Signing him now means the Rangers must make a significant deal to be cap compliant for opening night. Since there were no bites on Namestnikov that leaves only Kreider as an asset to move. And it doesn’t sound like the Rangers will put themselves into a predicament being forced to trade Kreider. At this moment, his value is too low due to cap circumstances. So if the Rangers do make a trade, it very well could be DeAngelo on the way out.

While that may strike some of you as odd, realize that the Rangers are already trying to figure out how to fit both Nils Lundkvist and K’Andre Miller into the lineup next season. If DeAngelo is moved Ryan Lindgren is the obvious choice to make the team right now.

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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