Anthony DeAngelo has been here before, answering questions about a past he’d rather move on from.
But now that the Rangers are the third team in three pro seasons for the 21-year-old defenseman, he at least has a grasp of the business side of hockey. And he knows that frequency of movement doesn’t happen to most players drafted No. 19 overall, as he was in 2014 by the Lightning.
But then again, most players weren’t suspended twice in the OHL for violating the league policy “to keep homophobic, racist and sexist language out of the game,” which he was in 2014. Nor have most players been suspended twice for abuse of an official, which DeAngelo was once in junior and once again for three games last season when he was getting his 39-game cup of coffee with the Coyotes. Nor are most players so open about their political leanings, like DeAngelo’s unfettered support on Twitter of President Trump, which included attacks against Hillary Clinton during the campaign.
But the Rangers did their research on DeAngelo, and they sought him out as part of the trade that also brought back the No. 7 overall pick (used to take Lias Andersson) and sent Derek Stepan and Antti Raanta out to the desert. Now the hope is that DeAngelo can perform on the ice as they expected, and any misdeeds of the past can stay there.
“People still ask about it and stuff, but to me, it’s over,” DeAngelo told The Post before he played a steady 21:01 in his preseason debut, a 1-0 overtime win against the Islanders at the Garden on Monday night. “I don’t think about it at all. It means nothing now. I’m just ready to move forward and get ready for the season.”
DeAngelo comes out of Sewell, N.J., far enough south that he still says he’s “from Philly” and grew up rooting for the Flyers and Eagles. He left at an early age to go play junior hockey in Canada, and he said the suspensions from three years ago in OHL were “a long time ago, so I haven’t really thought about them much.”
Which doesn’t mean he doesn’t regret some of them happening.
“Certain ones, yeah, I would say that, definitely,” DeAngelo said. “In-the-game stuff, that’s heat-of-the-moment, you learn from those mistakes.”
The hope then for DeAngelo is to still play with passion, but know where the line is for going too far.
see also
Breaking down the number crunch on Rangers’ defense
History tells us that a team can never have too…
“I’m going to bring an edge, that’s for sure,” he said before he took an unsportsmanlike conduct for a shoving match with Steve Bernier 1:45 into the third period. “But what kind of edge, I guess we’ll see. You have to keep it tame, too. I’m a pretty soft-spoken guy off the ice, as well. But on the ice, everybody gets passionate. Just have to be smart.”
One of the main reasons the Rangers wanted DeAngelo in the trade was his ability to create offense as a right-handed defenseman. Coach Alain Vigneault consulted DeAngelo’s former coaches in Arizona, Dave Tippett and Newell Brown, and they both came back with pretty strong scouting reports.
“Everybody said the same thing: Young player, a lot of tools, a lot of skills, great puck-skills, sees the ice well,” Vigneault said. “And he’s got a little bit of experience.”
Vigneault compared DeAngelo and another righty defenseman, free-agent signee out of Minnesota-Duluth Neal Pionk, as having very similar skill sets. It seems clear they are competing for the same depth job that might crack the opening-day roster, and Pionk immediately impressed with his whirling overtime winner.
For DeAngelo to win that contest, he needs to keep his offense at a high level, shore up his defense — and continue to keep his nose clean.