Bruins Finally Sign Danton Heinen To One-Year Contract

The Boston Bruins have finally signed forward Danton Heinen to a contract.

Almost two months after the Boston Bruins signed Heinen to a professional tryout on Sept. 5, they announced on Monday that Heinen is officially a Boston Bruin for the second time in his career. The 28-year-old winger was signed to a one-year year, $775,000 contract.

Per our friends at PuckPedia, the Boston Bruins currently have $687,500 in salary cap space with 22 of 23 roster slots filled.

Speaking at the conclusion of training camp, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney believed that the 6-foot-1, 188-pound winger had done enough to stick around and make the roster.

“We’re still weighing our options as it relates to potentially signing Danton [Heinen]. And he knows he’s been here in a PTO, but he’s also made the decision difficult. We’re going to take that right down on the wire when we make our final roster decisions,” Sweeney said at Media Day on Oct. 9. 

Well, Sweeney and the Bruins couldn’t make that decision because of the salary cap and wound up taking it three weeks past the wire. Obviously, one of the main reasons for that was rookie centers John Beecher and Matt Poitras making the opening night roster. The Bruins can send Beecher down to Providence without waivers at any time, but that doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon. Meanwhile, Poitras has six more games to prove he belongs or be sent back to his junior team, the Guelph Storm, in the OHL. That also seems unlikely at this point, with Poitras already getting shifts as a second line center.

Danton Heinen was drafted by the Boston Bruins in the fourth round (116th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot-1, 188-pound winger played eight games for the Bruins as a late-season call-up for the team at the end of the 2016-17 season. From there, he went on to play 212 games with the Bruins for just under three seasons before being traded to the Anaheim Ducks for winger Nick Ritchie at the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline.

Heinen’s best season with the Bruins was his rookie campaign in 2017-18, when he scored 16 goals and 31 assists in 77 games. Heinen followed that up with 11 goals and 23 assists the following season and then seven goals and 15 assists in 58 games during the 2019-20 season before being traded to the Ducks.

Danton Heinen had three goals and an assist in his first nine games with the Ducks after the trade. He then had seven goals and seven assists in 43 games during the 56-game shortened 2021 season, his last with the Ducks before signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2021 offseason. Heinen scored 18 goals to go with 15 assists in 76 games for the Penguins in the 2021-22 season, and then eight goals and 14 assists in 65 games last season.

Heinen now has 70 goals and 106 assists for 176 points in 413 career NHL games.