Trouble brewing between Tony DeAngelo and the Flyers.

As far as being a competitive team is concerned, for all intents and purposes the 2022-23 National Hockey League season is already over for the Philadelphia Flyers. The team has been well out of playoff contention for quite some time now, but in spite of that the disaster that has been this current season for the Flyers appears to be ongoing.

Over the course of the last few games the Flyers have made the curious decision of making veteran defenseman Tony DeAngelo a healthy scratch, in fact they have now done so for 3 consecutive games. For a healthy and a competitive player like DeAngelo that has to feel like a bit of a slap in the face, especially considering these kind of moves are usually reserved for when a coach is trying to send a message.

If there is a message being sent here though the Flyers don't appear to be interested in communicating it to DeAngelo, with John Tortorella confirming on Sunday that he hasn't even so much as talked to the player as of late.

DeAngelo of course has a history of being somewhat of a problem child with some of his previous teams so it isn't exactly shocking to see him disciplined in this fashion. What is surprising though is the apparent lack of communication towards a player that the Flyers will still have under contract come next season. Former Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher signed DeAngelo to a 2 year deal in the summer of 2022, meaning that he will still be on the books for the Flyers come next season at a cap hit of $5 million.

Alienating one of your regular defenseman so late in the season seems like a questionable move given that context, especially when talking about a player as volatile as DeAngelo.