The Flyers traded multiple draft picks to the Hurricanes on Friday in exchange for defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
A cursory look at DeAngelo's hockey-reference page will tell you he scores a lot of points and had the best year of his career last season in Carolina.
But a deeper look at DeAngelo's time in the NHL and his off-ice antics will explain why a number of angry Flyers fans took to the Internet on Friday to express their displeasure with the move.
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DeAngelo has a track record of disruption, antagonism, and most importantly outright racism, sexism, and homophobia.
DeAngelo was suspended more than once during his junior career in the Ontario Hockey League per ESPN, including once for violating the OHL's policy on "homophobic, racist, and sexist language" as well as abuse of officials. He received another suspension for abuse of officials early in his NHL career while with the Coyotes.
DeAngelo said he attended counseling classes because of his continued use of racial slurs, per The Athletic, which he described as "sports psychology" classes. DeAngelo said he knows he can't take back the actions, but he regretted what he said.
During his time with the Rangers, DeAngelo once again butted heads - this time with then-teammate Alex Georgiev. The two reportedly got into a physical altercation, reportedly started by DeAngelo, and had to be separated by a teammate.
Then there's DeAngelo's outspoken support of former President of the United States Donald Trump on social media (including assertions that the state of Pennsylvania was trying to "rig" the 2020 election) and his public questioning of the legitimacy of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Add this all together and you can see why Flyers fans reacted... like this:
Yep.
Moving that kind of draft capital for a player who turns 26 next season feels like an "aggressive retool" move, but DeAngelo isn't exactly the type of player you break the bank (or the farm) for. This certainly feels like the kind of move a team makes when they're both desperate to not go full rebuild and also wary of unsure of what the future holds (i.e., the Ryan Ellis situation remains a mystery).
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It's also fascinating to see the disconnect between bringing in a person like DeAngelo and comments from new Flyers head coach John Tortorella, who just days ago had this to say about the Philly locker room:
"I can sense that the locker room's a bit splintered, it's not together. That's my No. 1 goal right now. We can't do anything right on the ice unless we're together in that locker room, and that's a very important part of the first piece of work I need to do, is to get everybody to believe that we're together."
So your new head coach thinks the locker room needs more stability, unity, and leadership... and you go get a guy who's been disruptive and problematic basically every step of the way during his time as a hockey player?
Odd.
Between the obviously bad optics, the cost, and the decision to dish out assets for DeAngelo instead of a player like Alex DeBrincat, I can't say I understand this move at all.
But I'm not Chuck Fletcher.