The Komets announced Friday that defenseman Frankie DeAngelis has decided to retire from the game of hockey.
DeAngelis announced his retirement and notified Komet management that he will take employment back home outside of hockey. "Frankie was a great Komet and even a greater person," Komet general manager David Franke said. "We will miss him in many ways, but once a Komet, always a Komet."
During his career with the Komets, DeAngelis was selected to the 2009-10 IHL All-Rookie Team, named to the 2011 CHL All-Star Team, voted to the 2011-12 All-CHL Team and was honored as Komets Defenseman of the Year twice (2010-11and 2011-12).
Last year DeAngelis completed his third consecutive season in Fort Wayne appearing in all 66 regular season games scoring career highs of 18 goals, 28 assists and 46 points. The Woodbridge, Ontario native also skated all 18 playoff games netting four goals and 14 points en route to his second league championship with the Komets.
Comments
Good Luck Frankie, it was a honor to have you as a Komet, I wish you the best of luck in your future plans. Class Act all the way! You will be missed!
Best wishes to Frankie! Not the news I wanted to hear, but I respect his decision to move past his hockey career and get on with his life. The good news is he's not playing somewhere else against us.
Frankie, you will be truly missed by this Komets fan and thousands of others too, I'm sure. Take care and come back to visit once in a while.
I would like to echo the comments of Janice and Teresa215. Frankie DeAngelis was quite a player and achieved both personal, team, and league awards while playing as a Komet in two separate leagues. Of course we all wish him well in the future.
I have a couple of questions, though, and I'm not sure how to ask them without sounding cold. So here goes. 1) If retirement was going to be his choice why did he wait so long, and 2) without a deadline set by Franke, when would he have announced it? ( If other hockey offers were involved I could see where he might wait as long as possible, but this seems to have been a choice between the Komets or the working world).
The Komets still need more defensemen and in particular some with more speed and some with offensive skill. I keep reading that Anaheim may help or the lockout may help but I would hate to go into the season depending on stuff like that. The Komets still have an open spot at Norfolk's training camp. Do they send someone who is presently on the roster or use that spot as incentive to attract a nice young player to the team? Trouble is there is only three weeks left.
Again, as in past years, we come to a time where the General Manager really earns his check. Time to get back in the recruiting world and bring a player or two ( or more) to the roster. Awhile back Franke said that if DeAngelis didn't sign it would free up some salary. Now is the time to use it.
Alan, you ask why it took Frankie so long. I bet it was because it was really a tough decision for Frankie to make for him to leave a great team and town that he enjoys as much as we enjoy him. He's leaving while he's on top after achieving many accolades. He can start his next career having done it all!
Anonymous, I wouldn't argue with one thing in your post. Thing is, if it was that hard of a decision than I would submit that his "heart" really wasn't in it. This is certainly none of my business as he is the one weighing the pros' and cons', and it is his life, and on one but him is walking in his shoes, but I've learned in life that if your heart isn't in whatever you decide, then regret often enters and quickly.
Good luck to Frankie D.
Now let's all encourage the Franke's to use this as an opportunity to bring in some guys to solidify this defense which, as of now, is a very weak collection of guys and the achilles heel of the team. Use some of that Komets magic. We know that everyone wants to play in Fort Wayne, right?