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Greg Wyshynski
Tony DeAngelo is back in the NHL, signing with the New York Islanders for the rest of the 2024-25 season.
The contract, announced Friday, is for the league minimum salary of $775,000 and is prorated for the remaining games of the season.
The 29-year-old defenseman started the season with SKA Saint Petersburg of Russia’s KHL, signing with the club in the offseason after not finding an NHL opportunity in free agency. He had 32 points and 33 penalty minutes in 34 games. SKA announced a mutual termination of his contract Jan. 14 for what the team said were family considerations in North America.
As a player returning to the NHL, DeAngelo needs to clear waivers before playing his first game with the Islanders.
The Islanders recently lost top offensive defenseman Noah Dobson to a lower body injury. Dobson, who has 24 points in 46 games, is considered week-to-week.
DeAngelo is considered an offensive defenseman. He has 210 points in 371 career NHL games.
The Islanders are DeAngelo’s fifth NHL team. He was drafted 19th overall in 2014 by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who traded him to Arizona in 2016. After his rookie season with the Coyotes, he was traded to the New York Rangers, where he spent the majority of his career (167 games) and had his best offensive season in 2019-20 with 53 points in 68 games. His time with the Rangers ended after a physical altercation between DeAngelo and goalie Alexandar Georgiev in January 2021.
He signed as a free agent with the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2021 offseason and was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers one year later. The Flyers attempted to trade him back to the Hurricanes in 2023 but the deal violated the collective bargaining agreement; instead, they bought out the last year of his contract. He re-signed with the Hurricanes for the 2023-24 season and played 31 games, having been a healthy scratch for multiple games.
DeAngelo’s outspoken nature in interviews and on social media have made him one of hockey’s most divisive players among fans for his views on politics and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2014, while playing junior hockey for the Sarnia Sting, DeAngelo was suspended twice for violating the Ontario Hockey League’s Abuse/Diversity policy. That included an eight-game suspension for “a most inappropriate statement to a teammate.”