This Tony DeAngelo story is a doozy.

Really brief CliffsNotes version:

The Flyers traded for him, but a portion of the fan base thinks he’s an asshole MAGA type. There have been past incidents with teammates and slur usage. That’s one stance, then on the other hand, you’ve got people willing to forgive, and/or they think he’s matured over the years and is a different person at age 26. There is also a third portion of fans who do not care about this at all.

DeAngelo was asked about it during his introductory media call:

GM Chuck Fletcher was asked a series of DeAngelo questions following the move. The first one was about due diligence and looking into DeAngelo’s character and background before making this trade, which sent a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round draft pick to Carolina.

Fletcher:

“We actually did a lot of due diligence last summer as well. Tony is a young man. He’s played on a lot of teams now. He’s somebody that certainly has had some incidents in his past that probably gotten him into some trouble. He’s paid the consequences for those actions. We believe he’s learned from it. From everything we can gather and speaking with (Carolina GM) Don Waddell, speaking with some of the Carolina players, speaking with other people around the league, it seems like he’s really worked hard the last year and a half to change his ways. He’s older. He’s maturing. From all accounts he did a good job, both on and off the ice last season. He’ll be no different any other player on our team. We hold all the players to a high standard of conduct on and off the ice. John Tortorella is certainly somebody that will hold players accountable and we intend to make sure that everybody’s doing the right things all the time on and off the ice. I think Tony’s worked hard it appears to focus on hockey and be a good player and be a good teammate.

…

I think he’s made that decision to, again, focus his energy to playing on the ice and being a good teammate and toning down some of the rhetoric and toning down some of that (social media) activity. I intend to sit down with him in the next couple of days and talk to him, get to know him a lot better. I don’t anticipate any issues. He had a terrific season. He’s in a good place right now. Again, speaking with some people today, they raved about the type of person he is in the locker room and the type of teammate he is. I think we’re confident that this will be a good relationship.”

Fletcher went on to say that the Flyers have to “appreciate” the opinions of fans who think DeAngelo is a piece of shit (paraphrasing on that last part). The GM noted that TDA has apologized for past mistakes and “suffered consequences” for them, and noted that there haven’t been repeat offenses since those pre-NHL incidents took place.

There’s not much to say beyond that. Each individual fan has to take it from here. Draw comparisons to the Riley Cooper thing if you want. A lot of people back then still watched the Eagles but weren’t totally enthused when Cooper caught a pass or had a good game. There was some gray area treading during that time, where people didn’t wanna give up on the Birds even though they thought Cooper was a douche bag, though the concept of zero tolerance is more welcomed now than it was back then. Maybe you get a portion of people who say ‘you know what? I’m out on the Flyers, I can’t support this,’ and good for them, honestly. If you think TDA is a clown and want no part of it, then following through is admirable, because you’re putting your money where your mouth is. You’re backing up your words with actions. A lot of people say stuff on Twitter like “the Flyers suck for trading for a racist,” but then they go and buy merch and tickets and watch the games anyway, which makes them hypocrites. You can take whatever side you want, but without action it’s just meaningless posturing.