OP was worried about missing a connection. If de-icing took too long he could miss his connection and be booked on the next available flight if space were available (when he arrived in JFK); but AA could "protect" OP by holding a seat on second connection 9+ hours earlier, if he pleaded his case noting de-icing issues.
PS: I once was flying from ZURICH, Switzerland to JFK, even though Switz. should be able to deal with snow/ice more so than Paris, we were delayed because ZRH ran out of de-icing fluid and was awaiting some from "elsewhere". Once the fluid arrived (30 minutes later) the de-icing process was quick.