Fans of the New York Islanders are up in arms after the team announced Friday that they’d be signing divisive American defenseman Tony DeAngelo on a contract through the end of the season.
After an injury to defenseman Noah Dobson, Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello decided to ink DeAngelo to a contract on a pro-rated league minimum salary of $775,000.
He will need to clear waivers for the deal to go through.
DeAngelo had most recently played with SKA Saint Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia. SKA terminated DeAngelo’s contract earlier this month – with the defenseman wanting to return home due to ‘family reasons’.
DeAngelo is a divisive figure in the hockey community and has been at the center of multiple scandals in the past – including making racist/sexist/homophobic comments, fighting with teammates, and abusing officials.
When the move was announced on social media, hockey fans almost universally condemned the signing.
The New York Islanders have signed controversial defenseman Tony DeAngelo to a deal
DeAngelo’s contract was bought out by Russian KHL team SKA Saint Petersburg this month
Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello watches a practice at the team’s training facility
‘A deeply, deeply unserious organization,’ posted one Islanders fan on X, formerly Twitter.
Another Isles fan said, ‘I often ask myself why a merciful god punishes my sports fandom to no end.’
A fan of the rival New Jersey Devils posted, ‘Lou really just saw not much happening in hockey today and decided to throw a Molotov cocktail through the NHL offices.’
Some more particularly calm fans tweeted, ‘BURN UBS ARENA TO THE GROUND,’ or ‘I’m f***ing sick. F*** this disgusting piece of f***ing s**t. HE IS SCUM. HE IS LOCKER ROOM POISON. F*** YOU LOU.’
Another tweeted, ‘Why the absolute f*** would you do that.’
‘Good reminder not to judge a book by its cover,’ posted sportswriter James Duffy. ‘Yes, Tony DeAngelo is a terrible defender who is incapable at playing at an NHL level in his own zone. BUT, hes also a notoriously horrible teammate who was basically run out of multiple locker rooms. Two sides to every coin folks.’
Hockey analytics guru Rachel Doerrie tweeted, ‘If you would’ve told me DeAngelo and Lou Lamoriello would be in the same organization, I would not have believed you. This goes one of two ways: he straightens up and we see no social media nonsense or he doesn’t last more than a month.’
Roy Bellamy, a hockey podcaster and senior producer for ‘The Dan Le Batard Show’ simply called it a ‘Terrible f***ing signing.’
Fans of the Islanders and the sport almost universally condemned the signing by the team
DeAngelo is viewed as an offensive defenseman. According to hockey analyst @JFreshHockey, DeAngelo is in the 76th percentile in even strength offense and in the zero percentile in even strength defense.
As an amateur player, the New Jersey native was suspended on two separate occasions when he was in the Canadian major-junior Ontario Hockey League due to violating the league’s Harassment and Abuse/Diversity Policy by using racist, sexist, and/or homophobic language – including once when he abused his own teammate. The league did not specify what language he used.
He was also suspended multiple times in the OHL due to abuse of officials.
Despite these issues, DeAngelo was drafted 19th overall in 2014 by the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was traded to the Arizona Coyotes before he played a game for the organization.
In Arizona, DeAngelo was suspended for three games and fined over $14,000 for physically assaulting a referee back in January 2017.
Arizona traded him to the New York Rangers in June of 2017 – where he played without a serious incident for a number of seasons.
It all came to an end on January 30, 2021 when DeAngelo got into a fight with his own goaltender – Alexandar Georgiev – in the tunnel after a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The next day, the Rangers waived him and assigned him to the taxi squad – with general manager Jeff Gorton saying DeAngelo had ‘played his last game for the Rangers’. Over the summer, he was placed on unconditional waivers for the purposes of buying out his contract.
DeAngelo in a January 30, 2021 game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He would get into a physical fight with his own goaltender after this game and wouldn’t play for the Rangers again.
DeAngelo is led off the ice after spearing Tampa Bay Lightning forward Corey Perry in May 2023. He was suspended two games for this incident. He was later bought out by the Flyers.
DeAngelo plays the puck in his second stint with the Carolina Hurricanes in May 2024
As a free agent, he signed with the Carolina Hurricanes in July of 2021 – with fans initially pushing back on his inclusion in the squad.
After one season with the Hurricanes, DeAngelo was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in July 2022. During that tenure in Philadelphia, he notably speared Lightning forward Corey Perry and was suspended for two games.
Philadelphia bought out his contract that summer. DeAngelo became the first player in the history of the National Hockey League to have his contract bought out twice by two separate teams.
He returned to Carolina on a one-year deal in July of 2023. He played 31 games that season and wasn’t re-signed, hitting free agency. After not receiving a suitable offer from a team, he made the jump to Russia.
Off the ice, DeAngelo is an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump and has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Covid-19 pandemic in the past.
He was active on Twitter until he was banned in the aftermath of the January 6 riots at the United States Capitol building. He’s since returned to the site, now known as X.
Earlier this season, DeAngelo was supposed to make an appearance on the hockey podcast ‘What Chaos!’ – where he was set to engage in a vitriolic discussion with a hockey writer for The Athletic, Dom Luszczyszyn. After backlash from social media, Luszczyszyn and the podcast cancelled the appearance.
Across his current NHL career, DeAngelo has played in 371 games scoring 48 goals and 210 points while accruing 329 penalty minutes.
