The New York Rangers have a lot of questions to answer about Tony DeAngelo

The Rangers’ silence only does one thing: protect DeAngelo even more.

On Sunday morning, the New York Rangers put controversial defenseman Tony DeAngelo on waivers, a move that surprised many considering the team had just signed him to a two-year, $9 million contract back in October.

Last season, DeAngelo had 53 points in 68 games, despite still being a defensive liability. That kind of production would justify any team wanting to keep DeAngelo around, despite his well documented history of problematic behavior on and off the ice.  Yet, just six games into this season, the Rangers reached their breaking point and threw him out the door.  As DeAngelo cleared waivers on Monday, there were still no answers from anyone in the Rangers organization about what events finally forced the team’s hand. While rumors abound, the team has remained vague and tightlipped.

“This isn’t about one incident, it’s not about one thing,” Rangers head coach David Quinn told reporters. “This is a situation that the organization felt was best at this current time and we’ll see how the situation plays out.”

The move is further surprising because there was never any question about what kind of player and person the Rangers were getting with DeAngelo. A first-round draft pick in 2014, DeAngelo came into the league with a questionable history. He was suspended twice during his OHL years, once for abusing an official and once for using an unspecified slur against a teammate. Despite those noted red flags, DeAngelo got snatched up by the Tampa Bay Lightning. At the time, GM Steve Yzerman spoke about holding DeAngelo accountable for his behavior, yet, he never made it out of Tampa’s minor league affiliate. DeAngelo was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in 2016, where, just a few months into his NHL career, he served a three-game suspension for abusing an official.

With the Rangers, DeAngelo’s behavior wasn’t much better—he took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the first game of this season and subsequently sat out the next two.  Still, it’s been his antagonistic social media use that has recently caused the most problems for the Rangers.

For the past couple of years, DeAngelo has reveled in taking a page out of the alt-right social media playbook, fighting with fans on Twitter, expression COVID skepticism, and even advancing theories that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen. DeAngelo deactivated his accounts, but screenshots abound. All of it landed him in hot water with the Rangers, who have spoken to him privately about his social media use.

Still, none of that was enough to get the Rangers, who valued their investment over his clear character defects, to cut the cord until Sunday.

In light of no forthcoming statements from the Rangers, speculation on social media has run wild, with a vague set of facts emerging as to what might have finally made the Rangers draw the line. First reported by The Athletic and then confirmed by numerous outlets, the only thing that seems to be of certain is that there was an altercation after Saturday’s OT loss against the Pittsburg Penguins between goalie Alexandar Georgiev and DeAngelo.

To add to the drama, there are reports DeAngelo was punched by a teammate following that fight.  In addition to that, there have been unconfirmed reports that part of the tension in the Rangers locker room had to do with DeAngelo’s treatment and alleged bullying of K’Andre Miller, the Rangers only Black player.

Citing unnamed sources, Blue Shirt Banter reported that DeAngelo reportedly kept Miller’s first goal puck. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski pushed back against that report citing Miller’s agent. Yet another report says it was Miller who actually broke up the fight on Saturday.

In all of this, the Rangers have remained mostly silent and their silence only does one thing: protect DeAngelo even more.

Over the course of his Rangers career, the Rangers have not just enabled his bad behavior but rewarded it. When his play was worth the headache, the Rangers signed him to a lucrative contract, choosing to brush aside the litany of baggage that DeAngelo came with.  When it was clear that his social media use was a problem, the team never addressed comments publicly, instead choosing to keep things internal. The team even promoted DeAngelo’s podcast.

The Rangers, along with the entire pro hockey eco-system, has given DeAngelo chance after chance after chance to get his behavior in line. At each turn, he’s reverted back to his ugliest inclinations and pushed past the borders teams have drawn.  Yet, until Sunday, teams kept finding a way to rationalize DeAngelo’s behavior because it was a net benefit to them.

On Saturday night, something finally shifted. Now, the Rangers need to own up to what happened and their own role in letting this behavior slide for as long as it has.

What exactly, is the Rangers silence good for? DeAngelo has certainly proven himself to be a liability on and off the ice, and his play has slipped to the point where no team thinks it’s worth the risk. At best, the Rangers noncommittal attitude is protecting a guy who is just an overall terrible teammate. At worst, the Rangers are actively hiding a more sinister side to DeAngelo’s behavior, one that might have put the health and well being of a Black teammate in jeopardy.

Either way, by not making public comments, the Rangers are obfuscating and providing cover for DeAngelo, like they’ve always done. By offering only vague reasoning, the Rangers let themselves off the hook and let DeAngelo keep whatever is left of his reputation in tact. What it also means is that DeAngelo, for now, escapes accountability for his actions, something that he’s long since gotten used to.