Boston Bruins: Danton Heinen in for make-or-break season

It might be an unfair suggestion that this will be a make-or-break season for Danton Heinen. After all, he recently signed a relatively team-friendly deal to remain with the Boston Bruins.

If you compare the deal the Boston Bruins got in re-signing Danton Heinen to the deals comparable players have signed around the league, it’s safe to say that the player has potentially left money on the table, especially if it went to salary arbitration.

However, despite that, it’s a reasonable notion that this season is make-or-break. Since being drafted in the fourth round (116th overall) by the Boston Bruins in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, Danton Heinen has gone on to become a regular in the NHL.

Not only that, he managed to, in his first full NHL year to hit a near fifty point pace. For a fourth rounder, that’s a considerable return, though it didn’t come completely unexpected given his point-per-game pace with the University of Denver.

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This past season he may have simply suffered a case of the sophomore slump but it was clear that at times Danton Heinen definitely struggled. Maybe the fact he was part of a rotating cast employed on the second line’s right-wing didn’t help the situation either.

The player we saw in his first season with the Boston Bruins was gritty, a real pest in front of the net and always seemed to be buzzing around; this past year, we did see that at times but it was almost like he’d lost some of his confidence.

Maybe Heinen was suffering through an undisclosed injury, maybe it was genuinally a loss of self-confidence; either way, he’s now hedged his bets with the deal he signed.

Signing just a two-year term allows Danton Heinen to bet on himself. Perhaps the risk of such a contract actually sees him hit that fifty-point mark that he’d have likely managed two years ago if he played all 82 games.

Heinen has more than proven himself to be a very capable NHL player, but next summer a new contract is required for Torey Krug, as well as the deals that still need to happen this summer. His contract, even at a cheap $2.8 million per season could well be seen as expendable if his production remains around last year’s 34 points.

It’s a safe bet that if the Boston Bruins were to make it known that Heinen was available for trade, there may well be more than a few enquiries. He is absolutely an asset to this team, but he needs to make sure that he bounces back this coming season.

If not, he may end up moved on so the team can get the same production from a cheaper source. Make-or-break sounds a little bold, but that’s the reality of being in that middle group of guys on an NHL roster.