Why Flyers’ Tony DeAngelo faces potential suspension, discipline for spearing Lightning’s Corey Perry
Tony DeAngelo finds himself in hot water once again.
The Flyers defenseman is being heard before the NHL Player Safety Division after he speared Lightning forward Corey Perry Tuesday night.
The 27-year-old blue liner is no stranger to controversy on and off the ice. While DeAngelo has mostly stayed out of the spotlight for the past two years, he has a history of discipline and maturity issues.
DeAngelo is in the first year of a two-year contract he signed with the Flyers this offseason. He has played in 59 games with Philadelphia this year, recording 10 goals, 24 assists and 34 points. He ranks fourth on the team in points and is first among Flyers defensemen in that category.
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The Sporting News has more details about the potential discipline for DeAngelo and his background.
Why might Tony DeAngelo be suspended?
During the third period of the Flyers’ fight with the Lightning, a whistle in the Lightning zone at 2:40 pulled a crowd in front of the net.
Everything seemed to have settled down until DeAngelo entered the pile and impaled Perry.
As you might expect, Perry’s teammates didn’t take DeAngelo’s actions very well and immediately went for the defender.
DeAngelo received a five-minute major for spearing and an in-game misconduct. He was the only player to be penalized for the game.
NHL Spearing Suspensions
We’ve had two suspensions for spearing in the last few years. Brad Marchand was banned for two games in 2017 for spearing Jake Dotchin. His history played a role in the Department of Player Safety’s decision.
The next season, Matthew Tkachuk received a game for spearing Matt Martin during an altercation. He was on the bench when he bumped into Martin on the ice.
However, not all spearing incidents have resulted in suspensions. We’ve seen quite a few javelins in recent seasons that have only resulted in fines.
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Last season, Mark Friedman and Colton Sissons were fined for spearing. Alex Ovechkin received a javelin fine from Trent Frederic only in the 2020/21 season. Just like Radim Simek and Brandon Montour did in the same year.
Robby Fabbri was fined for spearing in 2019. Evgeni Malkin and Justin Abdelkader were only fined for their separate spearing incidents in the 2017/18 season, and the same goes for Leon Draisaitl and Steve Ott the year before.
In the 2015–16 season, Stephen Gionta and Brandon Prust were each fined for spearing in the same season. Prust was fined $5,000 for spearing Marchand, which he described as the “best money I’ve ever spent.”
History of Tony DeAngelo’s Suspension
This is the second time in his seven-year career that DeAngelo has been suspended from the NHL.
Previously, DeAngelo was banned for three games in 2016-17 for abusing an official. DeAngelo was with the Coyotes at the time and it was in response to an incident involving linesman David Brisebois during a game against the Flames on New Year’s Eve:
Overall, this is the third time he has been penalized by Player Safety. He was also fined $2,000 for “beautification/diving” in 2021 as this was his second citation for the same action.
Before DeAngelo made it to the NHL, he struggled with discipline in the juniors. While playing for OHL’s Sarnia Sting, he was banned twice in 2014 for violating the league’s policy to “keep out homophobic, racist and sexist language”.
The second ban was for eight games, while the details of his first ban were kept confidential by OHL.
Tony DeAngelo controversies
The problems with DeAngelo don’t stop with player safety. The defender also had a string of incidents involving his coaches and teammates.
During his tenure with Rangers, DeAngelo suffered multiple scratches in the 2018–19 season due to his outbursts on the ice, which resulted in penalties. At one point he was seeded for two games by coach David Quinn due to “maturity issues”.
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The problems continued. Earlier in the 2020–21 season, DeAngelo was scratched in the second game of the season for taking an unsportsmanlike penalty in the opener. At the time, Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton said DeAngelo would be placed on waivers if the behavior continued.
In January 2021, there were reports of an altercation between DeAngelo and backup goaltender Alexandar Georgiev after an overtime loss to the Penguins. DeAngelo was subsequently placed on waivers, and Gorton later told the media that he “played as a Ranger in his last game.”
DeAngelo also sparked controversy with his online social media presence. The defense attorney used his Twitter not only to post his political views on Donald Trump, but also to squabble with fans who have criticized his performances. He even urged a user to meet him outside of Madison Square Garden in August 2020.
Then the Rangers intervened and he deleted a large number of tweets. His social media use dropped sharply after that.