In an episode of Oilers Now released on Monday August 26, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli joined as a guest where they spent a lot of time discussing the different possibilities available for the Edmonton Oilers to fill their wide open right defence depth in the wake of the team trading Cody Ceci and not matching Philip Broberg‘s offer sheet.
One name that stood out as an option mentioned by Frank Seravalli is Tony DeAngelo. Yes, that Tony DeAngelo.
Seravalli admits that he doesn’t think his name has drawn much conversation internally, but he says that DeAngelo is better than most of the other names on the list, of which the most common names include former Oilers Justin Schultz and Tyson Barrie.
Has DeAngelo put his past behind him?
For an organization that is becoming the gathering room for some of the league’s most problematic and controversial individuals, DeAngelo would fit right in with this group. His history of questionable behaviour should, at this point, have removed any NHL interest in having him associated with a team or brand.
But it appears the damage control PR campaign is starting in his camp as Seravalli notes his appearance on a recent Daily Faceoff podcast. He was pumping up DeAngelo’s tires as a teammate, talking about his value in the locker room and being liked by teammates. He was also said to have discussed his shortcomings and behaviour problems of the past while taking accountability for them. Problems which include but are not limited to:
- Multiple violations of the OHL’s Harassment and Abuse/Diversity policy (including an eight game suspension for comments directed at a teammate);
- Suspension in the OHL for abuse of an official (after which he was ejected from his first game back for abuse of an official again);
- Being traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning (his draft team) one year after being drafted, in part due to rumoured behavioural issues;
- Another suspension in the NHL for abuse of an official in 2017;
- Multiple smaller behavioural and immature outbursts that led to various benchings with the New York Rangers which all came to a head in a fight with goaltender Alexandar Georgiev in the tunnel after a game (DeAngelo was waived and bought out after this incident);
- And of course his infamous Twitter presence overarching many of these years.
Would DeAngelo fit with the Oilers?
The Oilers have a glaring hole on their right-side defence. But it doesn’t quite make sense to have DeAngelo fill that. He is a pure offensive defender that is mostly a complete liability defensively. The Oilers already have an offensive defender in Evan Bouchard to fill that role.
So, he would essentially need to be a sheltered defender at even strength with the hope he could play on the seldomly used second powerplay unit. The Oilers have already tried this experiment with Barrie and it was not much of a benefit to the lineup.
Looking at his player card, there is very little reason to even bother looking any further at him as a fit for the Oilers. The extra puck moving and even strength offence might be nice to help jump start the bottom six forwards, but the absolute liability he presents defensively would create more issues than it solves.
The Oilers’ main hole on defence is on the second pair alongside Darnell Nurse. Someone of DeAngelo’s player type would not quite fill that need. He would need to be sheltered in that role as he would be playing against some of the league’s best offensive players while possessing some of the worst defensive metrics. This would end up putting Nurse in a spot again where he is needing to play his own role while also trying to cover for his partner, which is not a recipe for success.
If they, instead, shelter DeAngelo in a lower role on the third pairing, he just ends up clogging the defensive depth even more. His name gets added to the list with Ty Emberson, Josh Brown, and Troy Stecher. While one of those three could end up playing in an elevated role they also aren’t quite suited for.
The addition of DeAngelo would not solve any existing problems in the Oilers’ lineup, and with his track record of behavioural problems there is a fairly high chance he would just end up creating even more problems than he solves.
I agree that an offensive Dman or PP specialist is not what this team needs. That being said if the Oilers decide to go the PTO route I would much prefer they gave Deangelo a look than Barrie, Schultz, or Shattenkirk. They are all on the decline and appear to be washed up and potentially done in the NHL.