The Tony DeAngelo trade looks worse every game he is scratched. Is a divorce with the Flyers inevitable?

Having $5 million defenseman Tony DeAngelo rolling in just before puck drop, sitting in the press box, and not participating in pre-game skates with the scratches is probably not a good sign for his long-term prospects with the Flyers.

In other words, this doesn’t seem to be your run-of-the-mill John Tortorella scratch.

Tortorella has not hesitated to healthy scratch veterans to hammer home a point. Heading into April, he’d already scratched what amounts to millions of dollars worth of players. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was the first marquee name to be benched on Nov. 5. DeAngelo was next, as he watched the Flyers’ Nov. 9 game against Vegas from the press box after Tortorella commented that the defenseman’s play had dipped.

» READ MORE: Sielski: The Flyers’ trade for Tony DeAngelo is a mistake in every way

The biggest shoe to drop came when forward Kevin Hayes, who is earning $7.142 million per year and is one of the team’s leading scorers, got benched on Dec. 17 against his former team, the New York Rangers. Defenseman Travis Sanheim, who signed an eight-year, $50 million contract ($6.25 average annual value beginning next season) on opening night, joined the benched club in February when he drew Tortorella’s ire ahead of his homecoming game against the Calgary Flames. Cam York was also handed a “game off” later that month.

But those benchings were for a single game at a time and seemed to be just Tortorella trying to generate a response from players that weren’t performing to his standards or expectations.

DeAngelo has now been scratched in four straight games, including the final home game of his first season with his hometown team.

There are a few things that could be factors. While DeAngelo has put up good offensive numbers (11 goals, 42 points), it’s no secret that his defensive game has been poor — he’s minus-27 for the year and ranks near the bottom of the league in several advanced defensive metrics. In fact, the 27-year-old ranks last among 325 qualified defensemen in even-strength defensive goals above replacement (-10.9), according to Evolving Hockey. DeAngelo’s play had slipped even further recently, as he was minus-five over the five games prior to his benching.

The Flyers also wanted to get prospects Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning some playing time, and do right by popular veteran Justin Braun, who is sitting at 199 career points and is soon to be looking for work.

But the truth of the matter revealed itself when Nick Seeler was sick this past weekend. Instead of bringing DeAngelo back into the lineup, Tortorella instead elected to play five defensemen and 13 forwards — on the second night of a back-to-back, and against the record-breaking Boston Bruins, no less. Given Tortorella has often played seven defensemen this season, it was a pretty clear message of where DeAngelo currently stands with his head coach.

Tortorella has refused to explain why DeAngelo has continued to sit, only saying “It’s just our decision.” He did clarify that DeAngelo is healthy, leading to more questions than clarity.

DeAngelo was first scratched (this time around) on April 6 against the Dallas Stars. The defenseman said he wasn’t completely surprised, believing it was related to his recent defensive struggles.

“I put it on myself,” DeAngelo said in Dallas, Texas. “It has nothing to do with team structure, partners, nothing. It’s sometimes just a lack of attention to detail a little bit, I would say. And that’s on me. I look back and see it, too.”

At the time, he also thought it might have to do with giving the aforementioned young players looks. But then the Flyers played two games, against the New York Islanders and the Bruins, without a recalled player. On Tuesday, he sat for the fourth straight game, while his status for Thursday’s season finale is unknown.

The fall from grace has been swift for DeAngelo, who the Flyers and former general manager Chuck Fletcher willingly shelled out three draft picks — a second, third, and a fourth — for just last July. They subsequently signed him for $10 million over two years. Trading away future assets for a controversial veteran was a curious move for an organization that should have been focused on building the future, given it wasn’t realistically going to contend this season.

Yes, DeAngelo tallied 51 points in 64 games and was plus-30 on a playoff team last season. But the Carolina Hurricanes also had the right structure around him.

While DeAngelo said after the trade that he believed he had improved defensively, he has always been an offensive defenseman at his core. And the Flyers never had a good enough defensive defenseman — he’s played substantial minutes with Ivan Provorov, Sanheim, and Seeler — to insulate such a risk-taker or cover for his defensive deficiencies.

Meanwhile, in Carolina, DeAngelo played with defensive stalwart Jaccob Slavin, who was plus-35 last season and is plus-15 this year. While DeAngelo may have improved, some of it was surely down to partnering with a player of Slavin’s caliber.

On top of that, DeAngelo, who was brought in primarily for his offense and ability to run a power play, hasn’t moved the needle significantly there either. The Flyers are set to finish with the league’s worst power play for the second straight year, improving their success rate just 2.6% from last year.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Tony DeAngelo says he isn’t who you think he is. And he’s ready to prove it to hometown fans.

The Flyers gambled in acquiring DeAngelo, forking over valuable draft capital and committing cap space to a player that was never going to instantly make them a contender. Less than a year later, it seems to have backfired, considering the former first-pair defenseman is now sitting in the press box as a healthy scratch.

As the team embarks on its rebuild, the 27-year-old looks to be an odd fit. Given DeAngelo’s season and Tortorella’s recent comments about addition through subtraction, would it be surprising if DeAngelo is one of the pieces Tortorella thinks will help more by moving on?