As Monday’s Bruins morning skate was wrapping up, Danton Heinen was tabbed to lead the center-ice stretch and was met with stick taps from the players he had been practicing and traveling with for weeks without an official contract.
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As Monday’s Bruins morning skate was wrapping up, Danton Heinen was tabbed to lead the center-ice stretch and was met with stick taps from the players he had been practicing and traveling with for weeks without an official contract.
It wasn’t hard to figure out the significance of the gesture. Surely, Heinen’s professional tryout was finally over and an actual NHL contract was on the way.
That became official late Monday afternoon, when the Bruins announced that they had signed Heinen to a one-year deal worth $775,000. Heinen is in uniform for Monday night’s game against the Florida Panthers and will play on the fourth line with Johnny Beecher and Oskar Steen.
It remains unclear exactly why it took so long for the Bruins and Heinen to agree to a contract. Even after Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko suffered injuries, the Bruins called up multiple players from AHL Providence before signing Heinen.
The 28-year-old Heinen, now in his second stint with Boston, said the communication from the team remained good throughout this drawn-out process.
“There's a lot of moving parts and a lot up in the air, but they've been great with communicating with me,” Heinen said Monday. “And the staff is working with me and trainers and stuff like that and keeping me ready. So, that's just my mindset the whole time, is just be ready.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery credited Heinen, whom he also coached at the University of Denver, for doing exactly that.
“I've been really impressed, because when we do practice and there's opportunities for him to make plays or penalty kill, he’s been very noticeable,” Montgomery said Monday. “He's making a lot of plays, a lot of smart plays. He’s got really soft hands, can make a lot of plays. It doesn’t matter who he's gone with.”
Heinen has been a responsible, versatile two-way winger throughout his career, and he should bring some more offensive pop to a Bruins fourth line that has yet to score a goal this season. He had eight goals and 14 assists for the Penguins last season. Two years ago, he scored a career-high 18 goals.
Patrick Brown will be a healthy scratch with Heinen entering the lineup. One other change up front is that Matt Poitras will now have Trent Frederic on his wing, a move that Montgomery said is being done in part to discourage opponents from taking runs at the 19-year-old center, something that has happened a couple times in recent games.
Here is the Bruins' lineup Monday night with Heinen now in the fold:
Brad Marchand - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
James van Riemsdyk - Charlie Coyle - Jake DeBrusk
Trent Frederic - Matt Poitras - Morgan Geekie
Danton Heinen - Johnny Beecher - Oskar Steen
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Kevin Shattenkirk
Linus Ullmark