Tony DeAngelo Signs With SKA St. Petersburg

Sep. 23: DeAngelo is indeed heading to SKA on a one-year contract, the team announced Monday on Instagram.

Aug. 14: Tony DeAngelo seems likely to head overseas with SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League after a tough year with the Hurricanes, Anton Panchenko of Championat reported Monday. DeAngelo was the subject of more speculative rumors about a move to SKA earlier this month, which he refuted at the time and said he was focused on landing another NHL opportunity.

But in the days following DeAngelo’s statement, SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg confirmed that his club had contacted DeAngelo and maintained interest (via Championat’s Anton Nekrasov). Panchenko’s report from Monday, albeit translated from Russian, indicates that DeAngelo has now agreed to a contract with the KHL powerhouse.

DeAngelo, 28, became a UFA this summer after a second stint with the Hurricanes failed. The right-shot defenseman, whose play style is as one-dimensional as they come, enjoyed an offensive revival in Carolina in 2021-22, leading the club’s defense in scoring across the board with 10 goals, 41 assists, 51 points, and a career-high +30 rating in 64 games.

He gave Carolina that production on a dirt-cheap one-year, $1MM deal after he played just six games the year prior with the Rangers. That resulted from an early-season altercation with then-teammate Alexandar Georgiev, which resulted in DeAngelo being placed on waivers and assigned to the minors. He didn’t report to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack and instead sat out most of the shortened 2021 season before the Rangers bought out the final season of his contract, making him free to sign with the Canes as a UFA.

The Hurricanes couldn’t afford to keep him around after he punched far above his weight financially, trading his signing rights to the Flyers during the 2022 offseason. Philadelphia promptly signed him to a two-year, $10MM contract, and he entered 2022-23 near the top of their defensive depth chart.

However, DeAngelo’s defensive struggles became much more apparent outside of a strong Carolina system. He posted a team-worst -27 rating and became a healthy scratch at times near the tail end of the campaign. He was still a respectable contributor offensively, leading Flyers blueliners with 11 goals, 31 assists and 42 points in 70 games, but his relationship with head coach John Tortorella was fractured as a result of the scratches.

Shortly after the season ended, the Flyers made DeAngelo…