Former Tampa Bay Lightning first round pick suspended 3 games

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
January 1, 2017

When the Lightning selected Anthony DeAngelo with the 19th overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft, there were red flags.

But the offensive, right-handed defenseman had a skill set the organization was desperately in need of at the time. So after doing their homework and chalking some of DeAngelo’s incidents – which included an alleged racial slur directed at a teammate while in Sarnia – to lack of maturity from an 18-year-old, the Lightning used their first-round pick on the blue liner.

Perhaps everybody’s concerns were warranted.

DeAngelo, now with the Arizona Coyotes, was handed a three-game suspension on Sunday for physical abuse of an official. The incident occurred at the end of the second period during Arizona’s game at Calgary on New Year’s Eve. DeAngelo was being held by a linesman at the end of the period and tried to break free of the officials grip. The play resulted in an automatic 10-minute game misconduct and ejection.

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Before DeAngelo was drafted he was involved in similar situations, displaying some anger control issues while on the ice when he was suspended eight games for an incident against his teammate on top of an earlier suspension for abuse of an an official. When he was drafted, the Lightning believed they could bring him in to the organization and he would mature. But another suspension early in the 2014-15 season for abuse of an official showed he had a ways to go to change his reputation, even as his on-ice play improved as he was named the Ontario Hockey League defenseman of the year in 2015 after accumulating 25 goals and 89 points between Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie to go with a plus-33 rating.

Last year, his first as a pro, with the Syracuse Crunch, DeAngelo was scratched on more than one occasion for “coach’s decision” with no other explanation. He finished his first pro season with six goals, 43 points and 84 penalty minutes in 69 games.

But amid speculation that DeAngelo’s camp was not happy that he had not been called up to the NHL, the Lightning moved DeAngelo to the Coyotes on the second day of the draft in exchange for a second round pick. Tampa Bay used the selection to take defenseman Libor Hajek out of Saskatoon.

DeAngelo started the 2016-17 season in the minors but was called up by the Coyotes to make his NHL debut on Nov. 8 and promptly scored his first career goal in a win at Colorado. In 20 games with Arizona, DeAngelo has three goals and nine points while averaging 18:57 of ice time per game. Until the New Year’s Eve incident, DeAngelo had been called for just two minor penalties in his first 19 games.

A brief video of the incident is below, courtesy of Scouting the Refs Facebook page

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