#Tony DeAngelo can’t help but think of next Rangers contract

Before the start of the 2019-20 season, Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo signed a team-friendly one-year deal with a cap hit of $925,000. And now that this bizarre season has an end in sight, DeAngelo said he’d be lying if he said thoughts of his next contract weren’t in the back of his mind.

“I won’t touch too much on that, because I think it’s affected a lot of people a lot worse than it’s going to affect myself and other player across the league. We’re all in the same boat,” DeAngelo said on a Zoom call following camp Saturday. “But there’s a lot of people that are unemployed and stuff. So we’re pretty blessed to still be able to play.

“Obviously, we’ll take care of that in the offseason. Kind of just focused on the playoffs right now. I won’t lie [and say] that’s not in the back of everyone’s mind, I think its human nature.”

The 24-year-old defenseman, who the Rangers acquired from Arizona in June 2017, was on the heels of a breakout season when play was suspended in March. A new-found offensive groove allowed DeAngelo to collect career-highs in goals (15) and assists (38), while chipping in three game-winners throughout the season.

He even matched Brian Leetch’s franchise record for points by a defenseman in a regular-season game with a three-goal, two-assist performance against the Devils on Jan. 9.

And when the Rangers shipped defenseman Brady Skjei to Carolina in February after signing him to a six-year deal in 2018, it appeared the organization was giving themselves room to negotiate a longer deal with DeAngelo.

“I think Tony for the first time is in a situation two years in a row — where he’s got the same coaches, the same environment — it’s a similar situation to what he had last year,” coach David Quinn said. “Tony is a guy that’s got world-class skill, and he continues to hone his skills defensively.”

Quinn said he’s seen a lot of improvement in the defensive side of DeAngelo’s game. He finished the regular season plus-12 and nearly cut his total penalty minutes from last season in half.

During the 2018-19 season, DeAngelo was a healthy scratch roughly 20 times and battled with an ankle injury. Considering the team was carrying eight defenseman at the time, DeAngelo often found himself the odd man out. He ended up appearing in just 61 games last season.

However, DeAngelo was ultimately satisfied with the way his game wrapped up by the end of last year, and he noted he had more confidence coming into this season.

“I was pretty happy to finish last season, obviously, I only played 60 games out of the 82. But I think I played almost 30 in a row to finish off, and I thought I played well, had a lot of confidence coming into this season,” he said. “Struggled a little bit early on [this year], maybe the first five or six games I wasn’t happy where my game was.

“From there, I kind of picked it up, started feeling real confident. Quinnie and [former assistant Lindy Ruff] kept playing me and kept instilling confidence in me, which was good, I thought that helped me a lot. My game kind of opened up and offensively, the numbers kind of took off.”