The Penguins are bringing back one of their biggest sources of depth offense from last season.
Danton Heinen has signed a one-year contract that carries a $1 million cap hit for the 2022-23 season, it was announced on Wednesday by Ron Hextall. The contract is a $100,000 decrease in salary from the one-year deal he signed with the Penguins a year ago.
Heinen, 27, will become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season.
The Penguins now have 24 contracts on their NHL roster. The maximum allowed is 23. They are also over the salary cap by $1,480,175, not including Radim Zohorna, Drake Caggiula or P.O Joseph. While it seems as if another trade might be in the works, the Penguins could become compliant if they have Drew O'Connor ($750,000 cap hit) and Ty Smith ($863,333 cap hit) start the season in the AHL. Both players are waiver-exempt.
This shows exactly why it was right of Hextall to pass on submitting Heinen a qualifying offer, as he assuredly would have been awarded more in an arbitration case.
A source told me that Heinen's final decision to return to the Penguins came down to taking money out of the picture. The market for him wasn't great, but there were several offers on the table that were better than what he ended up signing for. He felt very strongly about returning to the Penguins and winning a Stanley Cup. He loves Pittsburgh just as much as his teammates and Mike Sullivan.
“I got a little bit of confidence back, saw the puck go in a little more," Heinen said of his strong season during the Penguins' end-of-season media availability. "That helps mentally, for sure. The main thing is just a little bit of confidence and knowing you can produce.”
He also mentioned that he wasn't looking for any specific details when it came to deciding where he would sign this offseason, just that he wanted to do what was best for him.
Last season, he scored 18 goals despite averaging the fewest minutes per game of regular Penguins skaters. At 5-on-5, Heinen finished second on the team with 15 goals, while the Penguins scored 54.3% of the on-ice goals and controlled 58.9% of the expected goals.
On top of that, Heinen had a very strong isolated impact toward driving quality offensive chances in addition to respectable impacts toward limiting quality chances against.
The Penguins desperately needed another depth forward who can contribute offensively and slide into the top-six if necessary. They're getting that in Heinen, and at a much cheaper rate than they would have paid for similar production and impacts on the market.
