Bruins sign veteran forward Danton Heinen to PTO

The Boston Bruins have signed Danton Heinen to a professional tryout contract. The 28-year-old winger will fight for a contract during training camp. 

The fact that nobody offered him a contract throughout the entire free agency period is surprising. Heinen is not a guy who will score 30 goals or anything but someone should have offered him a one-year deal at just under $1M per.

Last year during the 2022-23 season, Heinen played 65 games in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins scoring eight goals and 22 points. He contributed well as a fourth-liner there. His most common line mates were Jeff Carter, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Poehling and Brock McGinn. He was able to create enough chemistry with them to be a positive force on the ice.

Heinen was originally a fourth-round pick of the Bruins in 2014 and played some of the best hockey of his career in Boston. He played for the Bruins in his first stint there from 2017-20 until he was traded at the 2019-20 traded deadline to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Nick Ritchie. 

His best season in the NHL thus far was in 2017-18 with the Bruins when he scored 16 goals and 47 points, the latter a career-high.

Heinen is part of a dwindling list of remaining NHL-calibre free agents which includes the likes of Patrick Kane, Tomas Tatar, Phil Kessel, Paul Stastny, and Eric Staal. 

There is still a fair amount of talent left over but teams for the most part do not have enough cap space available to sign a Kane or Tatar. It is still surprising how Kessel, Staal, Zach Parise, and Tyler Motte haven’t found a destination yet for the 2023-24 season.

Heinen has played 413 games in his NHL career for three different NHL teams, putting up 70 goals and 176 points along with 72 penalty minutes and a +10 rating. He played in the Bruins Stanley Cup finals run of 2019 and scored eight points in 24 playoff games.