Danton Heinen is returning to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have re-signed forward Danton Heinen to a one-year contract. Heinen's deal runs through the 2022-23 season and has an average annual value of $1 million.
The Penguins declined to tender Heinen a qualifying offer two weeks ago due to reportedly not wanting to roll the dice on his potential arbitration reward. The middle-six winger is coming off a one-year contract with the Penguins worth $1.1 million.
During his first season with the Penguins, Heinen flourished in a middle-six role at even strength and found some success on the second powerplay unit. The 27-year-old winger scored 33 points (18-15) in 76 games while playing as high as the second line with Evgeni Malkin to the fourth line with Teddy Blueger.
He finished with 15 even strength goals last season, tied for third among Penguins skaters. The 6'1" winger is heading into his seventh season and has previously played for the Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks.
Heinen rejoins a Penguins roster that needed more depth scoring and NHL pedigree. He is projected to slot into a third-line role along with Jeff Carter and the recently re-signed Kasperi Kapanen. Heinen also brings another potential top-six replacement in case Jason Zucker or Kasperi Kapanen can't handle that increased role.
According to CapFriendly, this signing puts the Penguins $1.48 million over the NHL's salary cap and one player over the NHL roster limit of 23 players. There are over two months until NHL training camp and ten weeks before the team has to be cap compliant, but another move will need to be made for the team to get underneath the salary cap.
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