The Philadelphia Flyers have not only mismanaged their salary cap over the last few seasons, but their asset management has been abysmal at best.
They traded a second-round pick and seventh-round pick to get away from Shayne Gostisbehere, only to trade first and third round picks to acquire Rasmus Ristolainen. Then they traded 3 picks, including a second rounder, for Tony DeAngelo, who is essentially another Shayne Gostisbehere, but someone didn’t get that memo when they made that move on the second day of the draft. DeAngelo is a terrific offensive defenseman, however his defensive acumen is mid-tier at best and is only going to get exposed when playing top-4 minutes on a team that doesn’t carry themselves well defensively.
Chuck Fletcher explained his motive behind the deal and likened the move as trading the 39th overall pick for a power play quarterback who was going to improve their 12% power play from the year before. If he stopped right there, you could argue that there was some validity behind that statement, because DeAngelo has been a pretty good quarterback for the top unit and the Flyers’ man advantage has slightly improved from last year – even though there was no way they could’ve been worse off than 12%. He did fail to mention an explanation on why he had to add a third and fourth round selections to the deal, signing him to a 2-year contract worth $5 million annually, and then went on to say that he was top-pairing defenseman who would fill the massive hole left by Ryan Ellis.
Throughout his career, DeAngelo never had that title or cache behind his name. He was always known for his offensive prowess and it’s hard to argue that every team needs a player of that ilk. In most instances, you take the good with the bad – the bad being the costly turnovers, the lack of marking, and being beaten to the net on countless occasions. In 320 games, he has scored 43 goals and added 145 assists, while tallying 79 power play points. Before this year and counting stats from 2019-20 and 2021-22, DeAngelo scored 25 goals and 104 points in 132 games. He had a rough 2020-21 that eventually got him terminated from the New York Rangers, but he improved vastly on the Carolina Hurricanes the following year.
That brings us to his present-self with the Flyers where his up-and-down season has caught the eye of his head coach. In 50 games, DeAngelo has 9 goals and 31 points, 15 power play points including 3 power play markers, and a career-high 22:49 of ice time per game. What gets lost in those numbers are the turnovers that lead to scoring chances, being out of position, and flat-out being exposed on the defensive side of the puck. People don’t like plus/minus as a statistical category that holds any merit, but he is currently -19, which is 10 ratings worse than Zack MacEwen, Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, and Kevin Hayes, who are tied for 2nd on the team. Ivan Provorov is -7, Travis Sanheim is -6, Justin Braun is a plus 1, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler are a plus 2, and Cam York is a plus 8. Take that however you see fit, but there is a clear discrepancy between his own position.
His ice time has dropped by over 4 minutes a night in his last 22 games (20:51) compared to his first 28 (24:22) and a lot of that has to do with the fact that he was taken off the top pairing with Ivan Provorov and playing on the second pair – and sometimes third pair – with Travis Sanheim. However, one thing that Tortorella has done this year better than any of his counterparts from the past is that he understands each player’s strengths and weaknesses and isn’t trying to put them in situations they can’t handle or isn’t trying to change them into a different player.
“Last team he played for – Carolina – I think they could absorb some of that with their roster as far as maybe some of the deficiencies defensively. It kind of sticks out more with us. I think he’s one some great things for us here. It’s just…. we want to try to help him and we feel he needs to get better defensively without taking away any of that great offensive ability he has.
“We know what Tony is. I’m a little bit – not disappointed – but the defensive liability is something we need to work at. I didn’t think the amount of work that we need to do with him… I didn’t think that at the point in time that we got him. But it is what it is.”
Tortorella essentially echoing what most people in Philadelphia initially thought and have been thinking since the acquisition. Chuck Fletcher’s talent evaluation has been mystifying to say the least because he didn’t seem to grasp the idea that DeAngelo’s renaissance season was primarily because of the team that surrounded him, something similar to Keith Yandle from 2021-22. The Panthers were able to mask the deficiencies from Yandle’s defensive game as he provided them enough offense to make him somewhat valuable.
For reference, the Hurricanes were 54-20-8 last season, which was good for 1st in the Metropolitan Division, 2nd in the Eastern Conference, and 3rd in the NHL. They allowed a ridiculously low 200 goals against in 82 games, had the league’s best penalty kill at 88.04%, and had players like Jaccob Slavin, Brett Pesce, Ian Cole, Brady Skjei, and for parts of the season Ethan Bear and Brendan Smith. DeAngelo was paired up with Slavin for most of the season, which explains his +30 rating and why everyone under the sun couldn’t understand the logic behind 3 draft picks, including another second-round pick.
Tortorella has a firm grip on the situation and it’s endearing in a way that he spots the problem, has a solution to the problem, and is willing to be open about said problem. DeAngelo has now found himself on the third pair with Nick Seeler, and whether that’s permanent or an in-game adjustment remains to be seen, but based on his intangibles or lack thereof, it’s the right move. Seeler has surprised most of the fanbase this season and has been consistent on the back-end and even formed a productive duo with Ristolainen.
DeAngelo struggled to cope with the top pair minutes when playing with Provorov after the second week, and he was doing better with Sanheim but committed a couple horrendous gaffes on a game-by-game basis. His power play quarterbacking has been pretty good, so it just boils down to taking the good with the bad and dealing with what you have in front of you.
Fletcher suggesting he was a stop-gap for Ellis is wrong on so many levels, and once again it shines a bright light on his talent evaluations.
