Penguins A to Z: Danton Heinen proved something in 2021-22
With the Penguins’ 2021-22 season coming to a quick ending in the first round of the playoffs, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 54 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until the 2022-23 season — with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to top-six winger Jason Zucker.
Danton Heinen
Position: Left winger
Shoots: Left
Age: 26
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 188 pounds
2021-22 NHL statistics: 76 games, 33 points (18 goals, 15 assists)
Contract: A one-year contract with a salary cap hit of $1.1 million. Pending restricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
(Note: Per Cap Friendly, Heinen is eligible for salary arbitration in August.)
Acquired: Unrestricted free agent, July 29, 2021
Last season: Danton Heinen was in a low place last summer.
His previous team, the unremarkable Anaheim Ducks, opted to not qualify him as a restricted free agent on July 27, 2021, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.
Two days later, he was signed to a “prove-it” deal by the Penguins.
And he definitely proved something over the 2021-22 campaign.
With the Penguins dealing with all sorts of absences among their forward ranks due to various factors, Heinen, who can play either wing, was pressed into top-six duties early in the season and came through with a respectable 14 points (nine goals, five assists) through his first 30 games.
He even scored the first goal of the entire NHL season, finding the net only 12 seconds into a 6-2 road win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the season opener.
After the NHL halted play in mid-December due to an outbreak of covid-19 cases throughout the league and then resumed play just before the calendar flipped to 2022, Heinen — who missed six games due to various maladies in January and February — saw his production take a dip as he generated only 14 points (five goals, nine assists) over his next 38 games.
As the Penguins battled for a playoff seeding in the final weeks of the regular season, Heinen regained his scoring touch and finished with five points (four goals, one assist) in his final eight contests.
In the playoffs, with forward Jason Zucker hobbled due to a suspected groin injury, Heinen found himself elevated into a top-six role, predominantly on the left wing of the second line.
Appearing in all seven games of the Penguins’ first-round series with the New York Rangers, Heinen was third on the team with three goals, including the winning score in Game 3, a 7-4 home win.
The future: At the very least, Heinen is going to get a qualifying offer so the Penguins can retain his rights as a restricted free agent.
In all reality, he is more than deserving of a raise as well as a multi-year contract, even if it’s just two years.
Heinen, who turns 27 in July, was a question mark when he joined the Penguins and he proved that he could be a viable entity on a quality team and elevated himself into a top-six role, even when the squad was relatively healthy up front.
He isn’t exactly the most defensively stout player on the team and his 18 goals were a modest career-high. So he’s hardly a priority, especially with superstars such as forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang still unsigned a few weeks before the NHL’s free agent signing period opens on July 13.
But he was a contributor in 2021-22. He more than proved that.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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