With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2022-23 season coming to an end without any postseason action, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 49 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until next season — with the organization, from mid-level prospect Corey Andonovski to top-six winger Jason Zucker.
This series will publish every weekday leading into the NHL Draft on June 28 and 29.
(Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)
Danton Heinen
Position: Left winger
Shoots: Left
Age: 27
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 188 pounds
2022-23 NHL statistics: 65 games, 22 points (eight goals, 14 assists)
Contract: Signed to a one-year contract with a salary cap hit of $1 million. Pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 29, 2021
Last season: By most measures, former Penguins general manager Ron Hextall had a pretty successful 2022 offseason.
His biggest triumphs last summer were re-signing franchise pillars Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to multi-year contract extensions.
A slightly less celebrated accomplishment was bringing back Danton Heinen at a smaller salary after he set a career-high with 18 goals in 76 games during the 2021-22 campaign.
After management opted not to qualify Heinen as a restricted free agent on July 11 — out of concern he would potentially win a large arbitration award — Heinen was re-signed as an unrestricted free agent July 27.
Heinen looked to be a bargain once again in the early stages of the 2022-23 season. In his first five games, he managed to post six points (three goals, three assists). In fact, he looked like he was capable of being a first-liner when he scored two goals while substituting for injured All-Star Jake Guentzel in a 6-3 road win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 22.
That proved to be false hope as Heinen wound up going 34 consecutive games without a goal. That figure might have been higher had he not been a healthy scratch for seven games over that span.
Heinen broke his skid with a goal and two assists in a 7-6 home shootout win against the Florida Panthers on Jan. 24.
He even managed to score two nights later in a 3-2 road shootout loss to the Washington Capitals. But Heinen never seemed to gain any traction over the remainder of the season.
Primarily relegated to bottom-six duties, Heinen managed only eight points (four goals, four assists) in his final 25 games of 2022-23 (a stretch that included 10 games in which he was a healthy scratch).
The future: As a pending unrestricted free agent, Heinen won’t be a leading priority for the Penguins’ next general manager.
Heinen was a worthwhile experiment who bore fine results in his first season with the Penguins when he had a more prominent role in the top-six forwards. As for his second campaign, he wasn’t nearly as effective and was part of the reason the Penguins’ bottom-six forwards were a season-long frustration.
When things are going right for Heinen, he can generate offense and be a viable secondary contributor. When they aren’t going right, he’s a mostly inert entity.
It’s fair to wonder who is the real Danton Heinen? The player who nearly reached 20 goals in 2021-22? Or the player who was a healthy scratch on a team desperate for bottom-six contributions in 2022-23?
