Tony DeAngelo Leaves SKA St. Petersburg, Officially For “Family Reasons”

Tony DeAngelo has left SKA St. Petersburg. The 29-year-old American defenseman’s contract has been terminated by mutual agreement, officially for family reasons, the KHL club announced on Tuesday.

Family is a common reason given for cancelling a KHL contract. In November, ex-NHLer Linden Vey left Avangard Omsk “to manage family issues” only to sign with Swiss club Fribourg-Gottéron 10 days later.

DeAngelo signed a one-year contract with SKA in September and, in 34 games, scored six goals and added 26 assists for 32 points. He had 33 penalty minutes, was a plus-15 and played in the KHL all-star game. He leaves the team as its top-scoring defenseman and tied for third in points along with NHL prospects Ivan Demidov (Montreal Canadiens) and Arseni Gritsyuk (New Jersey Devils).

There has been speculation of a rift with head coach Roman Rotenberg, who benched DeAngelo for the third period of Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to Dynamo Moscow, apparently due to his on-ice play.

“It was a hockey situation, as I said, and he is no different from other players,” Rotenberg was quoted after the game by Sport-Express.ru. “That’s why he didn’t play. There are no secrets here.”

Normally a league powerhouse, SKA currently sits tied for seventh in the KHL’s 11-team Western Conference with 55 points in 44 games. This despite a roster that includes ex-NHLers Sergei Plotnikov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Valentin Zykov, Nikita Zaitsev and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Rotenberg hinted that there could be some big lineup changes if the team’s play didn’t improve – a warning to DeAngelo and perhaps other big-name players. “We have (34-year-old winger) Pavel Akolzin doing crazy dirty work for the team, and this is despite the fact that he is now also scoring. These are the kind of players we need to win. Let’s see what happens with the lineup for the next game.”

The next game was a 4-3 loss to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl – SKA’s third loss in a row. In what turned out to be his last game for the team, DeAngelo logged 26:46 of ice time with no points, five shots on goal and was a minus-1.

A native of Sewell, N.J., DeAngelo played junior hockey in the OHL, mostly for the Sarnia Sting but also for half a season with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. It was in that split 2014-15 season where he won the CHL’s defenseman-of-the-year award and also represented the USA at the IIHF World Junior Championship.

DeAngelo was drafted in the first round, 19th overall, by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2014, but he never played for the team that drafted him. Between 2016 and 2024, he played 317 regular-season NHL games for the Arizona Coyotes, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes, recording 210 points and 329 penalty minutes. He also played in 26 playoff games, recording 13 points.

DeAngelo’s career has seen plenty of controversy. In junior hockey, he was suspended for violations of the OHL’s Harassment and Abuse/Diversity Policy and for abuse of officials. In his professional career, he has frequently been disciplined by his teams for behavioral issues, and was bought out by the Rangers in 2021 following reports of a physical altercation with a teammate, goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.