Former NYR GM Jeff Gorton talks DeAngelo, the Wilson incident, and accusations against Panarin

After almost six years as General Manager of the New York Rangers, Jeff Gorton was suddenly let go in May of this year. There was plenty of speculation as to why. The 2020-21 season was a rough one for the Rangers, with the Tony DeAngelo incident at the beginning of the season where he was told to go home and wait to be traded or bought out, star player Artemi Panarin facing serious allegations back in Russia, and the Tom Wilson situation just before Gorton was fired that many speculated led to his demise. Wilson roughed up both Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin during a Rangers game against the Washington Capitals in early May. He would be fined for a sucker punch on Buchnevich, which did not sit well with NYR ownership and fans. A statement came out from the Rangers that criticized George Parros, the head of the NHL's Department of Player Safety, saying he wasn't fit to do his job. In a new interview on the Cam & Strick Podcast, Gorton addressed both those things for the first time since losing his job. He said he did not see the statement on Parros from the team before it went out and wasn't aware that it was going to be made. He believes it was written by the team's Public Relations department.

"Yeah, I think that's fair to say," said Gorton. "You might have seen it the first time I did."

The statement earned Rangers' owner James Dolan a $250,000 fine. Despite some reports that he and former President John Davidson (who was fired at the same time as Gorton) didn't agree with the statement, Gorton wasn't sure if that's what got him fired.

"No, I didn't know it was going to turn into that, it surprised me," Gorton said. "Obviously, I lost my job – it probably has to be more than that. I don't know but it has to be more than that – it can't be just one thing."

"Obviously it didn't go well, and Wilson should've been suspended," he said. "I didn't think that night was going to be what it turned into – that people were going to lose their jobs."

Gorton also went deep into the situation with DeAngelo, who was bought out by the team at the end of the season after being sent home in January and told not to come back.

"He's a Philly guy and he's pretty passionate about the way he thinks the world should work and we understood that," said Gorton. "But sometimes when he crossed the line I had to call him and say, 'Tony, Enough. Is it really worth it to have all these fans Tweet back at you? Do you really want to Tweet back at them and have a dialogue? Is that really going to be something that works for us? We are in the entertainment business and people are paying for tickets here, right?' So you try to have a rational conversation and talk to him on that level."

DeAngelo would often say things on social media or on his podcast that would earn him plenty of criticism from fans. Despite that, Gorton insisted DeAngelo was not disliked by his teammates.

"The thing about Tony is that he's actually very engaging, funny person. It's just that sometimes turning it off is something that he has to learn. But his teammates actually really like him. He's funny, he's engaging, he's tough, he's a good player... it's just every now and then he has to catch himself before he goes over the line," Gorton said. "I had more than one team call me and ask me about him and I told them... he's a good guy. I think that what happened sometimes with the Rangers is we were a young team and we could have used a few older, veteran leadership type players that could more hold a guy like accountable and make him fall in line a little better and we didn't necessarily have enough of that. But I told teams that if you have that, you're going to get a guy with skill who can put up 60 points and will fight for you."

An incident that led to blows between DeAngelo and now former teammate Alex Georgiev appeared to be the last straw for the Rangers. After being bought out, DeAngelo signed a one-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes this offseason, and insisted during a news conference that he will not bring any trouble to the team.

Gorton also talked about Artemi Panarin having to take a leave of absence from the team after being accused of a assaulting an 18-year-old girl in Belarus back in 2010. Those accusations were made public by Panarin's former KHL coach Andrei Nazarov in February of 2021. He claimed police were paid off to ignore the situation and not press any charges. No proof has ever been offered and the accusations were quickly dismissed. Gorton said the team decided to give Panarin some time to deal with the situation and to ensure his family back in Russia was safe. Gorton added that Panarin was less worried than most people think he was, but he wanted to ensure his grandparents weren't getting cut off from the medical care they needed back home because of the accusations. Asked if he reached out to Nazarov to try and clear up the situation, Gorton said no because Nazarov is "a little off" and the team didn't want to give him any more attention than he deserved.

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