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The Carolina Hurricanes have reportedly signed defenseman Tony DeAngelo to a one-year contract, worth $1.68 million. The signing was first reported by Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, with the cap hit confirmed by CapFriendly.
DeAngelo spent the 2021-22 season with the Hurricanes, where he found great success on a pairing with Jaccob Slavin for much of the year. He managed 10 goals and 51 points in 64 regular season games with the team, before being dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers last offseason, where he signed a two-year contract.
While the defenseman comes to the team with a checkered past, I think there'd be more reason for concern with how the deal will turn out if DeAngelo hadn't had such success with the Hurricanes so recently.
His defensive shortcomings are well-known, but in his first stint with the Hurricanes, the team was able to put him in situations which minimized the fallout of mistakes. DeAngelo’s skating and control allow for him to carry the puck and/or join a rush, and he’s able to keep possession under pressure to make a play. He remains near-elite offensively as well, with excellent vision and playmaking abilities, along with a great release on his wrist shot and a powerful slapshot.
With DeAngelo in the fold, it’ll be interesting to see how the Hurricanes’ defense group looks next season, with seven NHL defensemen on the roster right now. If they keep their top pairs the same, we could be looking at something like:
Slavin - Burns Skjei - Pesce Orlov - DeAngelo Chatfield
After adding DeAngelo, I’d also imagine it’s possible the Hurricanes could be out of the Erik Karlsson trade talks.
That said, the other possibility is someone could be moved before the season begins. With Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei both set to become unrestricted free agents in 2024, it’s possible we could see Pesce moved for assets, if the team thinks an extension won’t be attainable.
So we’ll see where things go from here, but on a low-risk deal, bringing back DeAngelo after all still makes sense for Carolina.
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