Bruins on lookout for this season’s Danton Heinen?
It was perhaps mildly surprising that Danton Heinen didn’t re-sign with the Boston Bruins and instead went home to his Vancouver Canucks when he reached free agency on July 1. The 29-year-old restored his NHL value with a strong campaign in Boston posting 17 goals and 36 points in 74 games after being forced to come to Boston on a training camp tryout when nobody was interested in signing him to a guaranteed contract last summer.
But the two-year, $5-million contract with the Canucks for Heinen was also probably more than the Bruins were willing to spend until they’ve got cost certainty with unsigned goalie Jeremy Swayman, even with Heinen’s past history in Boston and his long, successful relationship with Jim Montgomery.
That means the Bruins go into the dog days of the NHL offseason without a real established top-6 winger to play alongside Charlie Coyle and Brad Marchand, with the job up for grabs amongst a number of young prospects (Fabian Lysell, Georgii Merkulov) and some bottom-6 players with upside like Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie and Justin Brazeau amongst others.
The Black and Gold have shored up the center position with a seven-year contract for Elias Lindholm and bulked up big time on defense with Nikita Zadorov, and admittedly didn’t have enough to big game free agent hunting for a winger as well.
“You’re really looking at our lineup now on the back end. Every guy can really play 20 minutes. We can distribute that ice time, hopefully, we’ll leave it more evenly,” said Don Sweeney. “And in this case, you’re probably sacrifice, chasing something on the wing as a result of that. You’re really prioritizing getting a center, as I mentioned, and going into free agency, you’re gonna enter an uncomfortable zone, right? You just are what’s it going to take to sign a player that you’re fortunate enough that they want to come? So the pie is only so big. That’s what happens.
“I think some people are welcoming that opportunity [for a top-6 wing role]. [Pavel] Zacha has already been in that role so he can step in and do some of that, you know, and produce. [Morgan Geekie] has got in that role. There’s [Trent Frederic]. Somebody is going to have to [step up]. The ice time is going to get distributed. The two guys that maybe they play with if you need the top line together [are] pretty damn good hockey players. Somebody should be happy to be getting that opportunity. I’ll keep an eye out towards maybe something that presents [itself]. Certainly, if it doesn’t [present itself] now, [then] during the course of the season if there’s a void there.”
But one place where history could repeat itself for the Black and Gold is again bringing in a veteran camp invite or two that, like Heinen, could end up helping the Bruins at a bargain basement price tag.
That’s what Sweeney is referring to with “something that presents itself” as we get closer to NHL training camp in Boston.
Don’t forget the Bruins brought in a couple camp invites last fall with Heinen and Alex Chiasson battling it out for an NHL roster spot before the drafted-and-developed Heinen eventually graced the B’s roster in late October. Given the relative dearth of proven goal-scoring wingers headed into training camp after the free agency departure of Jake DeBrusk, let’s take a look at the unsigned players that the Bruins could be choosing from when extending training camp invites this time around:
– An intriguing name at the top of the list is 27-year-old right wing Daniel Sprong, who wasn’t given a qualifying offer by the Detroit Red Wings after posting 18 goals and 43 points in 76 games in Hockeytown last season. That was after 22 goals and 46 points for the Seattle Kraken two years ago amidst a 344-game NHL career that’s seen him post 85 goals and 159 points while playing for five teams at this point. He’s young, he’s scored 20 plus goals in the league and he’s topped 40 points in each of the last two seasons, so this would be a really good fit in terms of a player with top-6 upside. On the downside, his defensive reputation and underlying numbers aren’t good, and he was a healthy scratch down the stretch while Detroit was scratching and clawing for a playoff spot.
– James van Riemsdyk hasn’t announced any kind of retirement plans, and he had a solid first half last season in Boston while finishing up with 11 goals and 38 points in 71 games, but the 35-year-old really had a hard time keeping up in the second half of the year. We know he’s a good fit in the Bruins room and a player with plenty of New England hockey ties after starring at UNH, but I’d be surprised if he was brought camp with a camp invite after enduring a big second half swoon last year.
– Mike Hoffman has been linked to the Bruins in the past at least in terms of being a potential good fit as a goal-scoring hired gun, and the 34-year-old is looking for NHL work again this summer. He’s also coming off just 10 goals and 71 shots on net in 66 games for a bad Sharks group and was a minus-21 while not doing much at all even on the power play where he’s usually done damage in the past. In fact, his numbers have been in a step decline since posting 36 goals and 70 points in 2018-19 for the Panthers, and they really bottomed out this past season. That doesn’t even get into the off-ice baggage that Hoffman has carried in his past, either. Not sure I see Hoffman coming to Boston, even on a camp invite. But what if the goal-scoring could come back playing with top-6 players like Coyle and Marchand?
– Max Pacioretty came back from a pair of Achilles tendon injuries to post four goals and 23 points in 47 games for the Washington Capitals after playing his first game in January. The 35-year-old winger showed that he was healthy and could be a contributor, and this is a guy who was a big-time scorer for Vegas and Montreal. It’s been four years since he’s topped 20 goals or 50 points in an NHL season and he’s a left winger that wouldn’t be a perfect fit for what the Bruins are looking for, but this is the exact kind of player worth taking a flier on with a training camp invite just to see if there’s anything left in his tank after 902 NHL games. Plus it would be worth it just to torment Canadiens fans by dressing up one of their former captains in the Black and Gold for a few twirls, eh?
– Kailer Yamamoto is a former first-round pick who topped 20 goals and 40 points in 2021-22, but his numbers have down downward in the last couple of seasons before he was cut loose by the Seattle Kraken after eight goals and 16 points in 59 games last season. The 5-foot-8, 153-pound Yamamoto is small and skilled and has been a plus player for the most part during his 300-plus-game NHL career. He’s still young enough to really explode for a strong offensive season if placed in the right situation in Boston and is another really intriguing reclamation project that might be willing to come to the Bruins for the chance he could pull a Heinen-like turnaround.
