SKA Head Coach Romain Rotenberg told that the St. Petersburg club was interested in long-term cooperation with the defender Tony DeAngelo .
On Monday, the 28-year-old American hockey player signed a one-year contract with SKA. DeAngelo has previously played in the NHL for Arizona, the New York Rangers, Carolina and Philadelphia.
— How did you manage to sign a contract with DeAngelo?
— We always try to gather the best players. The asset of a hockey club is hockey players. For us, signing DeAngelo is worth a lot. He had many different options. We communicated a lot with him, and not even for a month, the communication lasted a very long time.
Tony asked a lot of questions, he’s a smart hockey player. DeAngelo asked what kind of hockey we play, how we train, what our schedule is, what our base is and the quality of the ice. He even asked about the gym equipment and if there was any exercise equipment he needed.
There was a very detailed conversation about the city. He had never been to Russia and here he was coming to St. Petersburg for the first time. I chose the best city for my first visit to Russia. But Tony has a very interesting family: his great-grandfather and great-grandmother are Italians who emigrated from Sicily to New York.
We talked about culture, the Russian spirit and what St. Petersburg lives and breathes. There is a lot of cultural exchange. The architect Francesco Rastrelli built St. Petersburg; on the banks of the Volga is a city named after the Italian communist Palmiro Togliatti. There are many crossroads to discover, and Tony and I talked a lot about the history of our country. Italians are very close to Russians.
We are very pleased that we had the opportunity to sign a contract with such a player as DeAngelo. We are grateful to our sponsor and shareholder PJSC Gazprom and personally to Alexey Borisovich Miller for the opportunity to develop and progress. The best hockey players in the world come to us.
You know DeAngelo’s numbers in the NHL, some of the best numbers in the league among defensemen in recent years. He can be considered one of the best right-handed defensemen for the power play, for starting an attack, for playing with the puck. It’s something that we’re actively implementing. It’s modern hockey, based on puck control and the principle of “give it, open it.”
Tony fits perfectly into our system. He can be compared to the best hockey players in the world in his role. He is the same type as Vyacheslav Voinov, who played for SKA. Since Slava left, we have not been able to find a suitable replacement.
We’re going to work and train. We’re taking a few weeks for DeAngelo to get ready and finish his paperwork. We have to give Tony a lot of respect because he flew to Russia by himself. As soon as we agreed, he immediately got the tickets and rushed to St. Petersburg.
— The deal with DeAngelo is for one year.
— Formally, yes, for this season. But we want long-term cooperation with him. We hope that not only DeAngelo, but all our players will contribute to the history of SKA by showing the best hockey in the fight for the Gagarin Cup, “Rotenberg told .
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I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
