Tony DeAngelo played his last game for the Rangers.
President John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton made that statement loud and clear during a press conference ahead of Monday’s game against the Penguins to discuss the consequences of a physical altercation between the controversial defender and goalkeeper Alexandar Georgiev after the loss. of Saturday’s overtime in Pittsburgh, which led to No. 77 being placed in waivers on Sunday.
“Yes, he played his last game for the Rangers,” Gorton said. “I don’t have the answer to what happens in the future.”
The Post reported that the incident between DeAngelo and Georgiev followed a miscommunication between the two during the extension on Saturday, which led to the winner of Sidney Crosby’s game. The 25-year-old made a remark to Georgiev just as the team left the ice, leading to a fight.
DeAngelo has been assigned to the taxi crew for now, but Gorton said the organization is looking to orchestrate a trade. Gorton also noted that there were no discussions regarding the termination of DeAngelo’s contract.
Davidson opened the press conference by rejecting speculation about DeAngelo’s relationship with debutant K’Andre Miller. There were rumors about DeAngelo holding back Miller’s first puck and that the two had a strained relationship.
“This is 100% false,” he said. “There is no truth. And for people to write things like that, other people to digest this is just wrong. In fact, it’s sad. ”
The beginning of the end for DeAngelo was apparently his reaction to being scratched in the second and third game of the season. After the player received a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct for hitting the penalty box in the opening loss of the season to the Islands, head coach David Quinn removed DeAngelo for disciplinary purposes in the 5-0 rematch victory before remaining with the same line in the next game against the Devils.
“After the first game of the season, he was obviously told he wasn’t going to play,” Gorton said. “Tony couldn’t get over it, it was something he was trying to get through. I had spoken to him at that moment and I said to him: “Listen, if there are still problems here, the time will come when we will put you on derogations and we will move on. No more problems, if your name is in everything we need to hear, we will continue, we will make this move.
“I made this statement to him, something happened and I have to stay true to my word here and the word of the organization that it is time to move on. … We feel that the transition from Tony is what needs to be done. It’s about winning and we feel like this is a move we had to make in our room to get on the road to winning. ”
DeAngelo, who signed a two-year $ 9.6 million extension with Rangers this season, has also been reprimanded by the organization for his presence on social media in recent months. From challenging a fan to a fight outside MSG to the question of what happened to the coronavirus pandemic during the recent election, DeAngelo has had several conversations with Rangers Brass about lowering its ice profile.
Asked if his socializing games had anything to do with the organization’s decision to move forward, Davidson said there was no correlation.
“There is a fine line with social networks, but obviously there is freedom of expression,” he said. “We are definitely following what our players say and do on social media. Tony, we’ve had informal discussions about this, there’s always a leak effect. ”
DeAngelo came to Broadway from Coyotes in the 2017 draft day transaction with the seventh overall option (Lias Andersson, now with Kings) in exchange for Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta. He had a history in the Ontario Hockey League, which included a double suspension for violating the league’s harassment, abuse and diversity policy.
“We did a lot of research, we talked to a lot of people about Tony before we got him,” Gorton said. “We did our homework, we felt comfortable. If you look at his record with us, I think you know that his season spoke for itself last year.
“There were a few things along the way, but really nothing that didn’t suggest anything from his past at Juniors, he never came with us like that.”