Boston Bruins: Comparable deals make Danton Heinen deal look nicer

With the re-signing of Danton Heinen a done deal for the Boston Bruins, it’s easy to get caught up in the cost. Looking around the league, it actually doesn’t look as negative, cost-wise.

The Boston Bruins inking a two-year deal worth $2.8 million per season for Danton Heinen may well prove to be an over-pay. It could also, just as easily, prove to be a relatively cheap contract if he can continue his strong two-way play and also move his production closer to his rookie season totals.

Comparable deals around the league paint Danton Heinen’s new deal in a positive light. Take for example, Ondrej Kase of the Anaheim Ducks, Kasperi Kapanen of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Miles Wood of the New Jersey Devils. All three make Don Sweeney looks quite impressive in his dealings:

Ondrej Kase

In three NHL seasons, since earning a promotion from the American Hockey League, Kase has put up a best campaign of just 38 points (20 goals and 18 assists). He has only topped 60 games in a season the one time, though last season was cut short with 20 points in 30 games suggesting there is something there.

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The comparison is there with Danton Heinen’s numbers, though a best year of 47 points looks considerably more impressive than 38. Even Heinen’s ‘off season’ last year saw him bag 34 points; only 4 short of Kase’s best year. What’s more, the Boston Bruins have been able to rely on him to play basically the full-season, only missing 5 games in both campaigns, before even considering play-off outings.

Contract-wise, Ondrej Kase earns $2.6 million against the cap for three seasons, signed one year earlier than Danton Heinen. This translates to 3.19% of the Anaheim Ducks’ salary cap. Heinen comes in at 3.44% of the Boston Bruins’ salary cap for two seasons; only 0.25% difference despite the stronger numbers.

Kasperi Kapanen

Securing a three-year deal this summer, Kaspei Kapanen is allocated 3.93% of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ cap space with a 3 year contract costing $3.2 million a year, or 0.49% more cap space than Danton Heinen is costing Boston.

Now, granted Kapanen hit twenty goals this past campaign and tallied 10 more points, but this was his best NHL campaign and it still doesn’t match Heinen’s best in terms of overall points. Not only that, it a lot of other metrics, Danton Heinen is the better player this past year.

Take their comparative Goals For percentages (a ratio of the Goals For and Goals Against when a player is on the ice at 5-on-5). Kapanen ended this season at 54.29%, Heinen ended it at 63.79%; tell me, who would you rather pay $3.2 million a year to?

The best comparison between the two players is their most productive campaigns and indeed their Corsi For this past season. Heinen hit 53%, Kapanen hit 52.91%; both players offered something to their teams whilst on the ice.

However, you can’t overlook the fact that one is costing $400,000 more a season, albeit with an extra year of term.

Miles Wood

What about Miles Wood of the New Jersey Devils; he broke out two seasons ago with the New Jersey Devils but signed a deal that looks to be a considerable overpay. His best year was a 32-point campaign in the 2017-18 season, also managing to rack up 80-plus penalty minutes in all of his NHL campaigns.

Danton Heinen offers far more reliability in terms of not wasting his time in the penalty box, 16 minutes in a season being the peak of his naughtiness. Wood is signed on a deal worth only $50,000 less per season than Heinen despite not even getting close to bringing the value the Bruins forward brings.

Conclusion

Looking at some of the comparison deals around the league for similar aged players, you can look at the deal that Don Sweeney has secured and see it as a definite winner. By tying him up for only two years, he’s likely gained a saving in the short-term, that can hopefully be repaid to the player with a better long-term cap hit.

I tell you what; I’d much rather have Danton Heinen around than Miles Wood, especially when the two guys are costing basically the same amount each year.