Sarnia Sting’s Anthony DeAngelo goes to Tampa Bay Lightning: ‘We’d rather try to settle him down a little bit than try to jack him up’

PHILADELPHIA — That 10-dollar word — polarizing — affixed to Anthony DeAngelo long ago.

That tends to happen with junior hockey's offensive-minded defencemen whose plays fosters speculation about how their derring-do will transfer up to the next level. With DeAngelo, of course, the debate fodder went beyond him occasionally overdoing it offensively or having the odd turnover end up in the Sarnia Sting net. The 18-year-old was also disciplined by his Sarnia coach Trevor Letowski during the season and was suspended this winter for violating the Ontario Hockey League's diversity policy. That led to speculation that DeAngelo, who had 71 points in just 51 games on the OHL's worst team, might fall out of the first round. Yet the Tampa Bay Lightning, who stayed keen and regularly had scouts at Sarnia's RBC Centre, took the South New Jersey native No. 19 overall.

"They liked me, I liked them," an ebullient DeAngelo said minutes after being drafted at Wells Fargo Center, where he had 125 family and friends in the crowd. "We got to know each other pretty good. Coming into today, I was pretty confident that this was a possible destination.

"The suspension is definitely in the past," he added. "It's been in the past for me for a while. But obviously I still had to explain myself and be honest because these teams need to do their homework. It was a mistake. I'm going to learn from it. I'm going to change. I'm going to bring a high character, highly competitive guy to this organization.

"Being asked about it wasn't bad for me. I didn't back down from any of it. I was just as honest as I could be with each and every team, each and every general manager."

The suspension was a first point of reference for many draft-watchers, who probably also wondered if there was anything to DeAngelo not being part of Team USA's national evaluation camp after being a candidate for last year's team. The Lightning didn't shy away from acknowledging DeAngelo's emotional maturity is a work-in-progress. Granted, this is a prospect who got an earlier start than most at leaving home to play junior. DeAngelo was still shy of 15 in 2010-11 when he left Sewell, N.J., to play a season for Mark Carlson with the USHL's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. He then committed to the OHL's Sting.

'We left no stone unturned'

The Lightning, though, believe they filled their boots with enough info.

"We've done more research on Anthony DeAngelo than any player I've ever been involved with in the draft — and that's in 30 years of scouting," said Tampa director of amateur scouting Al Murray, whose organization did try to trade up for a chance to draft Red Deer Rebels defender Haydn Fleury, who went No. 7 overall to the Carolina Hurricanes. "And the reason we had so many people up on stage [when DeAngelo's name was called] is because all those people were part of our research. We had people talk to his teams from Cedar Rapids back when he was in the USHL. We had people talking to USA Hockey from when he was in the Hlinka [under-18] tournament [in 2012] and other events. We spent time with Sarnia. We talked to the coach, the GM, the billets.

"We left no stone unturned in order to make sure we believed we were getting a good person," Murray said. "He's made some mistakes. He's got a temper that he needs to learn to control a little bit. We'd rather try to settle him down a little bit than try to jack him up. We believe strongly in our development program. Stacey Roest, our development coordinator, our farm team coaches, we believe we have a strong group of players around that can help out in those situations."

DeAngelo's beloveds throughout his childhood, the Philadelphia Flyers, drafted Calgary Hitmen defender Travis Sanheim with its No. 17 overall pick, two picks before Tampa was up. The Flyers taking the hometown kid, in hindsight, just seemed too good to be true.

"I was a little nervous with a lot of teams," DeAngelo said when asked about his nerves when Philly's turn came up. "The Flyers, would have been cool, but I'm excited to go to Tampa Bay."

The creative defender's Philadelphia-area ties made for extra media commitments during the week, such as going for cheesesteaks at the iconic Geno's Steaks in South Philly. DeAngelo said the combo of a draft in his hometown and a wide range of opinions on when he would be taken was a double-edged gift.

"It was 50/50," he said "If I hadn't been drafted tonight, it would have been way worse. I would have rather have been somewhere else. To have it happen tonight, it's unbelievable; 125 people here, family and friends, people I haven't seen in years, old coaches. It's really cool."

The 5-foot-11 defenceman likely faces another season in the OHL if the Lightning have defencemen ready to step into full-time NHL jobs. Tampa Bay, under Yzerman, leans toward the Detroit Red Wings' time-honoured tack of letting prospects mature in the minors and step into the OHL in their early 20s. The reason Tampa was able to send 2013 No. 3 overall pick Jonathan Drouin back to the Halifax Mooseheads was that it had AHL-groomed contributors ready to step in, such as 23-year-old Spokane Chiefs grad Tyler Johnson. Yet there are big expectations for DeAngelo.

"We think that Anthony was the most pure talented offensive defenceman in the draft," Murray said. "Probably the best comparable is that he can become Dan Boyle. Not just because Danny played in Tampa but because that's a similar style for him. Anthony is a great passer. He sees the ice. He has terrific vision. He can be a one-man breakout if he needs to be because he's a tremendous skater. But his game is about moving the puck to the open guy in all three zones. He can hit the long or the short pass. He can go in the offensive zone. He can a power play. Our hope is he becomes a top-four defenceman and a big part of our power play."

If and when that day comes, the night DeAngelo almost became a Flyer will be revisited.

"I'm ready to have them as my rival," he said.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.