Tony DeAngelo has officially been yeeted out of the NHL.
On Monday, the controversial defenseman signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s SKA Saint Petersburg, joining Evgeny Kuznetsov in Russia’s second-largest city.
The 28-year-old defenseman had 11 points (3g, 8a) in 31 games for the Carolina Hurricanes last season, adding two points (0g, 2a) in 9 playoff games.
“I signed a one-year contract with SKA,” DeAngelo said per Match TV and translated by Google Translate. “I am very happy to be here. My first impression is that I like everything.
“I have some familiar guys on the team. I’ll be happy to watch the SKA-Avangard game tonight.”
In a video he shot for the team, DeAngelo added, “Last year, I played with Kuzy, so nice to be familiar with a couple of guys. Makes it a little bit easier.”
Per Sports.ru, SKA’s head coach Roman Rotenberg “posted an excerpt from the film ‘The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia'” on social media to celebrate the signing.
Rotenberg added in an interview, “We had Artem Zemchenok get a serious injury, like Yegor Yakovlev [from Metallurg] had. In this situation, DeAngelo comes in place of Zemchenok.”
Of luring DeAngelo to SKA, Rotenberg explained that “in Leningrad Oblast, we offered Tony borscht and lard. The quality of the food also influenced the decision. Our chef prepared the most delicious borscht for our guest with emotion and passion, so he made a positive decision.”
DeAngelo’s move to Russia comes after he seemingly ran out of chances in North America. During his time in junior hockey, he was suspended twice for violating the Abuse/Diversity policy. In the AHL, he was healthy-scratched 8 games by the Syracuse Crunch for rumored behavior issues. As a member of the Arizona Coyotes, he was suspended three games by the NHL for physically assaulting a referee. With the New York Rangers, he was outright released after starting a fight with goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.
“Coming down the tunnel, I yelled at Georgi, ‘Make a f—-ing save’,” DeAngelo said after a loss to the Penguins. “So, if I didn’t yell at Georgi, Georgi wasn’t gonna turn around and try to do anything. That’s a fact. Obviously, I started it. I wasn’t thinking what happened next was gonna happen, that was a surprise to me.”
DeAngelo said Georgiev then head-butted him, goalie mask to player visor, which bloodied him. He retaliated by hitting the netminder in the helmet with his stick before teammates separated them.
On social media, DeAngelo also expressed skepticism over the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic (over a million Americans died due to it per Johns Hopkins) and joined Parler, a conservative social media site, after former president Donald Trump was banned from Twitter in light of the insurrection at the US Capitol. DeAngelo said at a press conference later he did not support the insurrection.
SKA currently sits fifth in the KHL’s Western Conference with 9 standings points in 7 games.
