Tony DeAngelo didn’t play the final five games of the Flyers’ season, which has mercifully come to an end.

When asked about the situation during end-of-year press conferences, Danny Briere and John Tortorella offered a little bit more on the situation. Not much, but enough to read between the lines.

First, Briere:

I just wanted to ask about Tony DeAngelo. John obviously decided to sit him for the final five games of the season. He’s got one more year left on his deal. How do you see him either fitting in next year or not?

Well, I’m not going to go into what happened. I think Torts has been really clear some of the stuff happens in the locker room, and it stays between the players and the coaches. Tony had an up and down season. There’s times where he was dominant, and there’s times where he was struggling, so it’s going to be a big summer for him. As of right now, he’s part of the team, and I plan on bringing him back. We’ll see where that goes, but it’s definitely not a fun situation at the moment for him the way things ended. That’s about all I can tell you at the moment on that.

And then Torts:

A guy that you felt like you were probably going to maybe clash with at times was Tony DeAngelo?

We did. 

Yeah, how was your relationship with him and do you feel like you guys can make it work next year if he’s here?

I know that’s probably a big topic for you guys. Tony didn’t play the last five games, so something happened, right? That’s gonna stay between Tony and I and the team. My job is to make decisions on what is best for the hockey team, my job as the coach. Sometimes it causes situations, but that’s all part of it. It’s the most interesting part to me in coaching is to see how people handle – it goes back to, I’m not sure who it was, really accountability. People say, ‘Yeah, I want to be held accountable.’ But when it really comes down to it, some guys don’t want to be. They want a free pass in certain situations. There’s no free passes. With Tony and I, that’s a situation I think that Tony and I need to work through along with the team. Not publicly.

Alright, so first things first, Briere says he plans on bringing DeAngelo back. That could, of course, be total horseshit as Briere calls up other GMs, but TDA has another year on his contract at $5 million and Chuck Fletcher spent multiple draft picks to acquire him.


Briere talks about stuff happening in the locker room, and Torts mentions that it’s going to stay “between Tony and I and the team” before saying “Tony and I need to work through (it) along with the team.” So it would seem to suggest as though it’s not necessarily a Torts/DeAngelo thing but something involving another guy or guys. Maybe there was some kind of altercation with a teammate. Maybe TDA called someone a poopy head (or worse). I haven’t seen anything reported anywhere, but we demand answers!