Tony Deangelo learns his fate on Saturday.

Tony DeAngelo has learned his fate.

On Friday, the New York Islanders surprised many when they announced that they were signing the controversial defenseman to a new contract mid-season. DeAngelo had been unable to secure himself a contract in the National Hockey League as a free agent this past summer and as a result was playing hockey for one of the Kontinental Hockey League's premier franchises in the form of SKA St. Petersburg.

The signing of DeAngelo however meant that he had to go through the waivers process and on Friday the Islanders did just that, placing DeAngelo on waivers and risking the possibility of losing their new signing to a rival team. That was however a relatively low risk when you consider the fact that the other team's in the NHL also would have had the option of signing him while he played in the KHL if they had wished to do so and the player agreed to a new deal.

As a result, to no one's surprise, DeAngelo will remain an Islander for the time being with NHL insider Elliotte Friedman officially confirming today that DeAngelo has cleared the waiver process.

The Islanders also officially welcomed DeAngelo back to New York following the news that he had cleared waivers.

DeAngelo of course infamously played for the New York Rangers during his career and had a rather unceremonious exit from that team, a team that is one of the Islanders' greatest rivals. It should make for some interesting story lines when these two teams next cross paths.