RALEIGH, N.C. — Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce was in his normal spot next to Brady Skjei on Tuesday in Dallas, back after missing the previous two games with an illness.

That meant Tony DeAngelo was also back in a familiar place — in the press box as a healthy scratch.

“I’m not used to it, obviously. I don’t agree with it,” DeAngelo said of being on the outside looking in on Carolina’s defense. “That’s nothing against the coaching staff or anybody. It’s just, honestly, I know I’m good enough to play. But we’ve got a great D and guys have played well, and that’s the way they went with it.

“But for me, it’s tough because you want to compete. I came back here, signing in Carolina, to play, to compete, to help try to win. So it’s tough to not get to be a part of it every night.”

DeAngelo averaged 17 minutes in the season’s first three games, posting an assist in each. Then his minutes dropped and Jalen Chatfield started gaining footing as the Hurricanes’ sixth defenseman.

“I thought (I played) a good game the first game, a good game the second game, a terrible game the third game — really had a bad game and I just wasn’t good enough,” he said. “And then really from there, in and out, in and out, in and out, seven D, never really got in a groove again.”

He’s played in 23 of Carolina’s 52 games this season, and since Thanksgiving, he’s mostly been deployed as a seventh defenseman or little-used sixth.

“You still gotta make the most of the seven, eight minutes, whatever it was I was getting,” he said. “And some games I thought I did, some games I thought I didn’t. So it’s just been a little bit of a tough go.”

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said following the Feb. 8 win over the Avalanche that he recognized it was difficult for DeAngelo to step in after not playing much over the past two-and-a-half months, and he has done his best to try and manage DeAngelo.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations and he understands the situation,” Brind’Amour said. “He doesn’t like it, obviously. He wants to play. But he also understands kind of how it is. We’ve got a great defensive group and, up until last night, been fortunate that they hadn’t missed games. So it is what it is, but we know we got a great player there, and that’s great for us.”

DeAngelo has unsurprisingly been the subject of trade rumors, with Carolina shopping him and his expiring $1.675 million contract.

“I signed here to be here,” DeAngelo said of the rumors. “I had other options. … The fans are great here, I love the city, the teammates are great — can’t ask for anything better than these guys. But yeah, I want to play. So if that’s gonna be here, great. If it’s gonna be somewhere else, that’s gonna be fine as well because as a competitor. I’m not going around asking for trades, it’s not really what I’m all about. … And I don’t want to sound selfish in a sense, because we’ve got a great team, we’ve got a chance to win.

“But for me, the most important thing is to be able to help the team compete, not by watching the game. So I don’t know if I would say I’m expecting it as the next couple weeks go, but I wouldn’t be surprised either.”

DeAngelo — who has two goals and seven assists, with six of his nine points coming on the power play — said he and his agent have had discussions with the Hurricanes front office about “the best thing for both sides.”

Right-handed defensemen who can quarterback a power play are usually in high demand. DeAngelo admits his reputation and past could be holding up a potential trade.

“Yeah, I think it hurts,” he said. “I think people have a — you build a reputation, and it’s hard undo it. … I found myself in some jams, obviously been bought out twice, which is no good.”

DeAngelo said he’s quick to take blame for any past indiscretions but also prides himself on being a good teammate. He did admit he didn’t see eye to eye with Flyers coach John Tortorella last season.

“Have I had some beefs with a coach here and there? Absolutely,” he said. “That’s just how I am. I compete and get fired up. A fiery coach like Torts and I winded up not being the greatest match in that world, which I take the blame for that as well.”

Still, DeAngelo said his departure from Philadelphia was handled “cordially” as both sides worked to find a landing spot for him. A rumored trade to Carolina was put on hold — perhaps because of the Hurricanes’ pursuit of Erik Karlsson — and the Flyers decided to buy out DeAngelo before the window to do so closed.

After signing DeAngelo, Carolina made good on the proposed deal, sending prospect Massimo Rizzo and a fifth-round pick to Philadelphia in exchange for David Kase — who planned to and has played in the Czech League with brother Ondrej this season.

“What was going on behind the scenes, nobody knew about that,” DeAngelo said. “And then you get bought out and people are like, ‘Whoa, well what was going on?’ And it really wasn’t like that. There were trades and the Flyers were gonna go in a different direction.”

Still, DeAngelo doesn’t regret leaving Carolina after one season to play for his hometown team. He said when he was traded to and signed with Philadelphia, he did so hoping he’d spend the rest of his career playing for the Flyers.

“I have regrets in my career, plenty, but not that,” he said of ending up in Philly. “I wanted to stay (in Carolina). I had no interest in talking about a trade, asking for a trade. But when it came up that that was what they were going to do if I didn’t take so and so, there was no choice for me.”

When he signed with the Hurricanes for the 2021-22 season, DeAngelo wasn’t supposed to end up on a pairing with Jaccob Slavin. He wound up clicking with Slavin, scoring 51 points in 2021-22 — then a record among defensemen since the team relocated to North Carolina.

But during contract negotiations with the Hurricanes, DeAngelo said “there were conversations that led me to believe that I may not even be with Jaccob that upcoming season.”

He was traded, along with a seventh-round pick, to Philadelphia at the draft, with Carolina getting second-, third- and fourth-round picks in return. He signed a two-year contract worth $10 million with the Flyers. At Hurricanes training camp this year, DeAngelo said he thought he started last season playing the best hockey of his career but then struggled with inconsistency.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, moved on, landing Brent Burns in a trade to be Slavin’s new partner. Burns bested DeAngelo by 10 points for the most since relocation, finishing with 61 last season.

With Burns entrenched as Slavin’s partner and Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce one of the most frequent tandems in the NHL over the past few years, DeAngelo came into this year’s camp battling Chatfield for the spot next to big free-agent acquisition Dmitry Orlov on the third pairing.

“We were just trying to break each other in a little bit,” DeAngelo said of his start to the season with Orlov. “And then it was switching up, like I said, everything was kind of bouncing around. That’s the way it goes. We weren’t on our A game to start the year as a team too. So coaches tend to start to move things around a little bit, and that’s just the way it went and, unfortunately, I wound up being the odd man out.”

Now he is waiting to see what comes next, and DeAngelo admitted he has wondered about his future in the NHL.

“It’s tough for me to think that way,” he said, “but I have, trust me. … It’s top of mind the way things have gone. But at the same time, when I watch myself play and I know what I could do, it’s like there’s gotta be a spot for me. And that’s kind of (the situation now) — you gotta play to show it, right? Well, you don’t play and you don’t show it, that’s the easiest way to get thrown under the rug.”

The Hurricanes will need a reliable No. 7 defenseman for the stretch run and postseason, so trading DeAngelo would mean finding another blueliner to serve in that role.

After logging 13-plus solid minutes in tough home wins against Colorado and New Jersey in Pesce’s absence, DeAngelo is hoping teams take notice.

“This situation for me has been has been the toughest thing for my career as far as not playing,” he said, “and all I can do is just be a good teammate, be a good pro.

“And hopefully that translates into something good going forward.”

(Photo of Tony DeAngelo: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)