4/13/21 | 3:54PM: Larry Brooks writes in the NY Post that more than one team was interested in signing DeAngelo had he opted to terminate his contract but there was not enough time to find the “right fit and deal.”
Brooks writes that DeAngelo and his agent brought the option of termination to the Rangers but it was contingent upon DeAngelo being able to find a new deal. Brooks adds that Montreal’s offer covered the rest of DeAngelo’s contract for this season and the amount he would lose in the buyout. (NY Post)
3:48PM: On the Ray and Dregs podcast, Darren Dreger said “The Tony DeAngelo story has kind of faded, still the property of the New York Rangers, I know that Pat Brisson, the agent, worked this deal this deal hard. So the New York Rangers offer a mutual termination to Tony DeAngelo, now what that means is that your contract is null and void, there are millions of dollars, I think over $6 million still in play, wouldn’t be an easy decision for Tony DeAngelo. Brisson, in the meantime, had effectively worked out a deal with the Montreal Canadiens on the weekend, I think it was a two-year deal, but could stand to be corrected on that, but there was interest, the Montreal Canadiens the most interested in bringing Tony DeAngelo back into the NHL, but he would have had to terminate his deal, go through waivers and then re-up on the other side. He opted not to do that, personal, financial decision made by Tony DeAngelo and his family.”
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1:39PM: On the 31 Thoughts Podcast, Elliotte Friedman said “The Canadiens decided that they wanted to give DeAngelo a look, but they didn’t want to pick up the $5 million for next year. So what was going to have to happen was DeAngelo and the Rangers were going to have to agree to termination and then the Canadiens were going to sign him to a contract for next year. I don’t know the exact number, but basically from what I heard, it was going to make DeAngelo whole, because DeAngelo is under 26, he is getting bought out for 1/3 next year, not 2/3. By not accepting the termination he saves just under $3 million. I think Montreal was going to make him pretty close to whole, between next year and this year, he was going to be close to whole. However, he decided not to do it and will take the buyout. He turned down the Canadiens. What I think is that he believes there will be other opportunities for him and maybe there is something that he thinks is better, but he does seem to think there will be opportunities for him. We’ll see where it goes this offeseason, but Montreal was definitely interested and they offered him a contract for next year that if it was not going to make him whole, come pretty close to it.”
4/12/21 | 7:29 PM: Darren Dreger tweets that the Rangers offered Tony DeAngelo the option of mutually terminating his contract and allowing him to become a free agent but DeAngelo opted against it.
Dreger says that DeAngelo will be bought out of the final year of his contract this summer.
Rangers GM Jeff Gorton was asked about DeAngelo earlier today and said “I’ve had some conversations with some teams about Tony, but nothing really ever materialized and nothing lately. That will be a summer issue we will do with.”
A buyout will save the Rangers $4.4 million in cap space but create dead cap hits for the next two seasons of (CapFriendly):
- 2021-22: $383,333
- 2022-23: $883,333
Dreger said that Montreal was believed to be “very interested” in DeAngelo as recently as this weekend.
For more on DeAngelo, click HERE.
4/12/21 | Adam Rotter: The buyout was always the most logical option, especially from the Rangers’ point of view, and it will give DeAngelo the option of picking his next spot. I do think that the Rangers would have preferred to just get rid of him and move on, but not at a cost of adding more salary or commitments past what DeAngelo has on his contract. The contract termination would have been interesting and allowed DeAngelo to probably play this season, but he would have forfeited the rest of his money for this season and the 1/3 he will get next year from the buyout. He would have signed a new contract for this season, but likely only gotten the prorated amount of the league minimum, especially from a capped out team like Montreal. From a dollars and cents point of view he probably stood to make more from sitting out and the buyout then terminating his deal and signing for, likely, the minimum. There is the chance that Seattle takes him in the expansion draft, but it seems unlikely that an expansion team would want to start with the baggage that DeAngelo brings. In the end the Rangers will have to wait just a little bit longer to cut ties and gain cap space.
4/13/21 | Adam Rotter: I’m shocked both that DeAngelo’s offer from Montreal would have made him whole and that he didn’t jump at taking it. It’s possible that DeAngelo didn’t want to play in Canada or didn’t want to deal with the scrutiny, spotlight and never ending news cycle that comes with playing for the Habs. Maybe he didn’t want a multi-year and was hoping to find a team for the rest of this season, possibly play in the playoffs and then reset his market in the offseason.