Boston Bruins: What does the Danton Heinen signing mean?

Danton Heinen is staying in a Boston Bruins uniform for the next two years. That’s not surprising based on his performances from the past two seasons.

The Boston Bruins now have just two more restricted free agents to re-sign. With these implications and more, what does the Danton Heinen signing mean for Boston?

Danton Heinen signing a two-year deal worth $2.8 million per season might seem a bit as an over-payment for some fans, for the other, it might look like a solid signing. It’s indeed a very good signing for the Bruins. Looking around at some deals thrown out to certain players around the league, Heinen is definitely worth that money.

During his 2017-2018 rookie season, Heinen skated in 77 games collecting 47 points, which is his career high. He went off a little bit at the conclusion of the regular season and in the playoffs, as well. In nine playoff contests, Heinen scored just one goal for one point.

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In his last season, the struggles carried over from the ending of the previous campaign. After a slow start to the year, Danton Heinen was able to rebound and eventually gather 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points in 77 games. In the playoffs, the 24-year-old forward produced two goals and six assists for eight points in 24 games.

After his sophomore struggles, Heinen’s presence was felt in the Boston Bruins lineup. In the playoffs, Danton Heinen was skating formidably on the third line alongside Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson. For Heinen, it’s more common for him to play on the left side.

During the playoffs, and because of the presence of Marcus Johansson, Heinen had to skate on the right wing. Furthermore, he managed to record eight points and Corsi For of 54.1%. Based on the advanced stats, Danton Heinen was one of the most reliable Boston Bruins forwards in the playoffs.

In the regular season, Heinen averaged almost 14 minutes of the ice time per game and 53% of the Corsi For, which is also very impressive for a young forward. For players producing 30 to 45 points and having such quality two-way play, it’s no wonder they are able to score big on the paydays.

However, the Bruins will have to be creative with their salary cap space from now on. There were mild hopes that the Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney would pull such a miraculous contract as the San Jose Sharks did with Kevin Labanc, but that one didn’t come to fruition. Danton Heinen signing, as of right now, means problems.

As per CapFriendly, the Bruins now have $7,353,334 in the salary cap space, but that counts for 25 roster players. Meanwhile, there can be only 23 healthy skaters on the NHL roster to begin the season.

The Boston Bruins might create a bit of cap space just putting two injured defensemen John Moore and Kevan Miller on the long-term injured reserve. But that doesn’t thread the needle long-term, only for a few weeks or months.

With a little more than eight million in the salary cap space to re-sign Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy, the Boston Bruins have to find a way. There is still some hope of fitting those two under the salary cap, but it’s a very minor hope. More realistic is some sort of trade scenario.

The Boston Bruins can easily save up to six million with trading David Backes, but that would be a way too expensive. As of now, the Bruins need approximately $11 million to re-sign their two young star defensemen. David Backes can be traded in a less painful trade retaining 50% of his salary perhaps. Sending him down to Providence and making some other minor trades, as we already suggested, is also an option.

The most convincing one is to trade away Kevan Miller. With $2.5 million in salary cap hit, the Bruins practically don’t need him to re-sign next summer. Especially not after the signing of Connor Clifton. If the Bruins don’t intend to re-sign Miller next summer (he will be already 32-years-old that time), they have to repeat what they achieved with Adam McQuaid and his contract last September.

The Danton Heinen signing doesn’t only influence the present salary cap situation. There will be an expansion draft in two years. By that time, Heinen may be a perfect expansion pick candidate, and will be set to become a restricted free agent.

Seattle can only pick a player being contract for the 2021-2022 season. The Bruins will need to expose two forwards around that time. Maybe, it would be the best bet to lose Heinen just to protect their whole defensive core from the Bruins perspective, but only time will tell.

If Heinen signed a three-year deal, he would become an unrestricted free agent in 2022, that was also a topic in his contract negotiations.

The Boston Bruins are down to just two more re-signings after the Danton Heinen signing. They secured a solid two-way player who has built nice chemistry with Charlie Coyle over the past spring, but also have to stay attentive to create enough cap space to still extend McAvoy and Carlo.