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Tony DeAngelo played his last game for Rangers.
President John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton made the statement loud and clear at a press conference ahead of Monday’s game against the Penguins to discuss the consequences of a physical altercation between the controversial defenseman and the goalkeeper Alexandar Georgiev following Saturday’s overtime loss to Pittsburgh, which led to No.77 being placed on Sunday waivers.
“Yes, he played his last game for the Rangers,” said Gorton. “What happens in the future, I don’t have the answer to that.”
The Post reported that the incident between DeAngelo and Georgiev followed poor communication between the two during extra time on Saturday, which led to the match winner Sidney Crosby. The 25-year-old made a remark to Georgiev as the team left the ice which led to a brawl.
DeAngelo has been named to the taxi team for now, but Gorton said the organization is looking to orchestrate a trade. Gorton also mentioned that there had been no discussion about terminating DeAngelo’s contract.
Davidson opened the press conference by refuting speculation regarding DeAngelo’s relationship with rookie K’Andre Miller. There were rumors that DeAngelo retained Miller’s first goal puck and that the two had a strained relationship.
“It’s 100% wrong,” he says. “There is no truth to this. And for people to write things like, other people to digest it is just plain wrong. It’s sad, actually.
The start of the end for DeAngelo was apparently his reaction to being struck out in games two and three of the season. After the player assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for slamming the door to the penalty box in the season-opener loss to the Islanders, head coach David Quinn benched DeAngelo for disciplinary purposes in the 5-0 victory before keeping the same formation the next game against the Devils.
“After the first game of the season, obviously he was told he wasn’t going to play,” said Gorton. “Tony couldn’t get over it, it was something he was trying to get over. I spoke to him then and I said, “Look, if there are other issues here, the time will come when we’re going to ask you for exemptions and move on. No more problems, if your name is in something we need to hear, we’ll move on, we’ll do it.
“I made this statement to him, something happened and I must stay true to my word here and the word of the organization that it is time to move on. … We think switching from Tony is the right thing to do. It’s about winning, and we feel like it’s a move we need to do in our bedroom to get us on the path to victory.
DeAngelo, who signed a two-year, $ 9.6 million extension with the Rangers this offseason, has also been berated by the organization for his social media presence in recent months. From a fan’s protest to a fight outside of MSG to questioning what happened to the coronavirus pandemic in the recent election, DeAngelo has had multiple conversations with Ranger leaders about reduction of its off-ice profile.
When asked if his social media antics had anything to do with the organization’s decision to move on, Davidson said there was no correlation.
“There is a fine line with social media, but obviously there is freedom of speech,” he said. “We definitely watch what our players are saying and doing on social media. Tony, we’ve had an informal discussion about this, there’s always a trickle down effect.
DeAngelo came to Broadway after the Coyotes in the 2017 draft with the seventh overall pick (Lias Andersson, now with the Kings) in exchange for Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta. He had a history in the Ontario Hockey League, which included a two-time suspension for violating the league’s harassment, abuse and diversity policy.
“We did a lot of research, told a lot of people about Tony before we got him,” Gorton said. “We did our homework, we were comfortable. If you look at his track record with us, I think you know his season spoke for itself last year.
“There were a few things along the way, but really nothing that could suggest anything about his background as a junior, there’s nothing like that has ever happened to us.
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