On the last day of January, the New York Rangers placed defenseman Tony DeAngelo on the waivers, officially clearing them on Monday, February 1st. A surprising move for the program, rumors began to circulate on what lead the Rangers to make this decision. 

DeAngelo broke into the league a first-round pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning and later joined the Rangers from a joint trade with the Arizona Coyotes in 2017. An extremely talented player, DeAngelo racked up major awards in the Ontario Hockey League and the Candian Hockey League, the defenseman has been nothing short of capable. While the 2020 season was cut short due to COVID-19, DeAngelo reached 53 points in 68 games for the Rangers. 

When looking at the why behind his dismissal from the program, his actions and behavior on and off the ice rival his statistical accomplishments. There had been situations leading up to the final straw for the Rangers, such as his violations of the harassment, abuse, and diversity policy in the OHL and in 2017 for violating Rule 40.4 (Physical Abuse of Officials). The programs later stated that they went through a “daily struggle” managing the defenseman. While these situations should have been a greater cause for concern, DeAngelo continued to progress through the league.

On January 31st, Rick Carpiniello, NHL writer for The Athletic, broke the story that started DeAngelo’s downfall. Sources shared that DeAngelo and the Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev were involved in an altercation inside the tunnel leading to the team’s locker room immediately following the loss to the Penguins. 

The moment this story broke, rumors started to swirl about possible explanations for the altercation, many drawing on DeAngelo’s support for former president Donald Trump as well as possible comments made to rookie K’Andre Miller. DeAngelo has gotten reprimanded by the Rangers for comments made on Twitter, downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic and tweets after the Capital riots.

Rangers General Manager, Jeff Gorton only stated that “we had an incident that happened” and acknowledged that DeAngelo had played his last game for the Rangers. A few days after, Georgiev released a statement saying, “I don’t want to elaborate on what happened,” he said. “I just want to keep it in the past tense. Emotions happened, and that’s all I can say. I wish Tony the best moving forward and I’m going to focus on my game.”

With all the possible reasons, it is unlikely that the public will know more about their decision. The public image issues that DeAngelo brought to the Rangers will hopefully be put aside and allow the team to move forward together. Whether the Rangers move was a culmination of incidents or just based on the Georgie altercation, the loss is great for the Rangers blueline.