Flyers sign Tony DeAngelo to two-year, $10 million contract; offer deals to nine RFAs
Forwards Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, and Isaac Ratcliffe were among the restricted free agents to be offered deals. RFAs cannot accept offers until July 13.
After trading with the Carolina Hurricanes for the rights to restricted free agent defenseman Tony DeAngelo on Friday, the Flyers signed DeAngelo to a two-year, $10 million ($5 million AAV) on Monday.
The 26-year-old was acquired, alongside a seventh-round pick, early on Day 2 of the NHL draft for three draft picks — a 2024 second-round pick, a 2024 third-round pick, and a 2022 fourth-rounder. Multiple reports had the correct contract terms on Friday but the deal was not made official until Monday.
» READ MORE: Wrong guy. Wrong time. Wrong reasons. Flyers’ trade for Tony DeAngelo is a mistake in every way.
The smooth-skating DeAngelo tallied 10 goals and 51 points last season with the Hurricanes in 64 games, finishing with a plus-minus rating of plus-30. Prior to his lone season in Carolina, the Sewell, Gloucester County, native previously spent four seasons with the New York Rangers organization and one with the Arizona Coyotes.
He had his best season in 2019-20 with the Rangers when he posted career-highs in goals (15) and points (53). Since making his NHL debut during the 2016-17 season, the offensively-minded defenseman has put up 34 goals and 157 points in 270 games.
The move for DeAngelo did not come without criticism, given the 5-foot-11, 180-pound defenseman’s past suspensions for racist language and a well-documented confrontation with former Rangers teammate Alexandar Georgiev.
Flyers extend qualifying offers to nine restricted free agents
Leading up to the 5 p.m. deadline on Monday, the Flyers announced they issued qualifying offers to nine of their restricted free agents — Wade Allison, Jackson Cates, Morgan Frost, Hayden Hodgson, Linus HögbergL, Tanner Laczynski, Zack MacEwen, Isaac Ratcliffe, and Owen Tippett.
In turn, the Flyers did not extend qualifying offers to three restricted free agents — forwards Matthew Strome, Maksim Sushko or goaltender Kirill Ustimenko.
Sushko, the Flyers’ fourth-round, 107th-overall pick in 2017, signed a two-year deal with Dynamo Moscow in May. The Flyers could have issued him a qualifying offer to retain his rights, but they decided not to do so. Strome, the Flyers’ fourth-round, 106th-overall pick in 2017, split time the past three seasons playing in the ECHL and the AHL. Ustimenko, who was drafted by the Flyers in the third round, 80th overall in 2017, also bounced between the ECHL and AHL.
There were no major surprises as far as who was offered contracts with Tippett, Frost, Allison, and Ratcliffe the most high-profile of the team’s RFAs. Restricted free agents cannot formally accept any offers until July 13.