Heinen has earned his contract
Danton Heinen, the guy who had to wait almost all of October to see his professional tryout contract convert to a bona fide NHL deal, looks like he has secured himself a spot on the opposite wing from David Pastrnak for the the start of the upcoming playoffs.
As a reminder, the vast percentage of players who come to training camp on PTO agreements end up out of luck well before the start of the new season.
But here’s Heinen, 28 years old, a mere 10 months older than Pastrnak, riding sidecar with Pavel Zacha and Pasta the Rainmaker (108 regular-season goals the last two seasons) on what has turned into one of the NHL’s top lines.
If it weren’t so preposterous, it could be the story line for a Disney movie.
Originally a Bruins draft pick (No. 116 in 2014), Heinen was traded away in 2020 for
Nick Ritchie, who played this season for two teams in Europe, neither one of which wants him back next year. Meanwhile, Heinen is the $775,000 plug-and-play winger with Zacha ($4.75 million) and Pastrnak ($11.25 million), with 16 goals and 35 points in 70 games.
“I think he’s delivering about [as expected],” said coach Jim Montgomery, who also was Heinen’s bench boss at the University of Denver. “What I’ve been happy about is his commitment to defense, how he’s become one of our top penalty killers and one of our more reliable players in the D-zone as well.”
As for offense, added Montgomery, he figured Heinen would dial in near where he is as a half-point-per-game contributor.
“Just because of where he’s been used most of the year . . . in the bottom six,” said Montgomery, musing over the math. “A half-point-a-game player, that’s really good for a bottom-six.”
Heinen played the previous two seasons with the Penguins, signing concurrent oneyear deals for an average $1.05 million. His NHL CV restored now, he is on course again to reach UFA on July 1, provided general manager Don Sweeney doesn’t lock him up with a contract extension prior to the annual big-money jamboree.
The most lucrative NHL deal Heinen ever signed was here, in July 2019, when Sweeney secured him to a two-year deal that carried a $2.8 million salary-cap hit. The trick now is to figure out what the figure would be to retain Heinen on, say, a two- or three-year extension. He would seem to be a comfortable fit for around that same $2.8 million figure, but there’s no knowing if Sweeney will offer that much, or if Heinen would accept it.
Boqvist earning admirers
Count teammate Charlie Coyle as one who appreciates the speed and fancy footwork of Jesper Boqvist, who closed the show here Saturday with his overtime goal against the Panthers.
Boqvist, a Devils castaway, came aboard over the summer for the same budget-bin price of $775,000 that Sweeney gave Heinen. At age 25, though, the 2017 Round 2 draft pick is young enough that he will be a restricted free agent in July, ostensibly giving Sweeney an edge at the negotiating table if the Bruins want to keep him.
“When I think of him, I think ‘smooth,’ ” offered Coyle, who popped in an important, and rare, power-play goal in the win over the Flordians. “It’s elegant, you know, the way he handles the puck, skates and stops on a dime . . . I wish I had it. I’m going to keep working to be like him one day. It’s the smoothness of it, and he has his head up, can make plays and he’s done a really good job of it.”
Boqvist is in that rare group of skaters who leave an observer to surmise part of his skating gift was predetermined by genetics. Hard work can produce only so much.
“I think so,” agreed a smiling Coyle. “He probably works on it, but . . . I wasn’t born with it, I’ll tell you that much. I’m going to keep working on it, though.”
Look for Montgomery again to roll out a third line of Jake DeBrusk-Boqvist-Trent Frederic when the Hurricanes visit Tuesday night.
Top of the list
Pastrnak’s 108 goals make him the league leader in that category since the start of last season, but he is only four ahead of Toronto’s Auston Matthews, who leads the league this season with 64 goals — the second time he has reached the 60 plateau . . . Pastrnak, who has 47 goals this campaign, for much of this season led the league in shots. But as of Sunday morning, Colorado’s
Nathan MacKinnon was the category leader with 377, eight ahead of Pastrnak . . . Montgomery should reveal after Monday’s practice if he’ll keep to his rotation and go with
Jeremy Swayman vs. Carolina, or give Ullmark (the winner vs. Florida) a back-toback, allowing the Swedish stopper to get a fresh look at the Hurricanes in case the clubs meet in the postseason . . . Zdeno
Chara was in the house for Saturday’s matinee. The significantly leaner Big Z will line up next Monday morning in Hopkinton to run the Boston Marathon, take a deep breath, and then run in the London Marathon April 21. Chara, a lock for the Hockey Hall of Fame, said his ’24 calendar includes seven marathons, four Iron Man competitions, and two half-Iron Mans. Chara turned 47 last month. “What about you? You running Boston?” Chara asked one press-box wag, who assured Big Z he was barely qualified to run the snack bar.