It was a routine enough question, a copy-and-paste inquiry applicable to many players that Mike Sullivan has coached over the years.
Sullivan had been asked simply what makes winger Danton Heinen a viable option to move up and down the lineup on a given night.
However, Sullivan went on to offer a reply of over two minutes and nearly 400 words, laying out why Heinen, whom the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired on Feb. 1 from the Vancouver Canucks, is flexible as a forward.
“He might not be identified as a top-six forward that consistently produces game in and game out, but he’s a guy that has very good offensive instincts that has the ability to play up the lineup,” Sullivan said. “So, if we have holes in our top six, I think Danton thinks the game well enough offensively and he can finish. He’s got a really deceptive shot and he has finishing capability.”
The Penguins have certainly had holes in their lineup of late.
Sidney Crosby sat out the final two games before the 4 Nations Face-Off break with an injury, while Bryan Rust entered the two-week pause in NHL action on injured reserve.
Evgeni Malkin, out week-to-week on injured reserve, hasn’t played since Jan. 25, while the departure of Drew O’Connor, traded with Marcus Pettersson to the Vancouver Canucks for Heinen and defensemen Vincent Desharnais, created another hole to be plugged.
Heinen, 29, is not an answer to all of the above.
But, in returning to the Penguins, a club for whom he played two seasons and 141 games between 2021-23, Heinen hopes to be helpful wherever the Penguins see fit to deploy him.
“I think I take pride on being able to play up and down,” Heinen said. “Obviously, sometimes you want to be able to be with linemates for a while and stuff like that. But the game’s tough and guys have to fill in in different spots.
“I think I can just read off guys, talk to them, see what they want from me and just try to be reliable on both ends of the ice, whether you’re playing in a bottom-six role and need to be good defensively or playing in a the top-six and bring that 200-foot game. I try to stick to my game and try to make plays.”
So far, Heinen has played in four games for the Penguins since being traded from the Canucks, averaging 13 minutes, 47 seconds of ice time per night with an assist and 11 shots.
He’s also averaging 1:07 on the power play.
Sullivan to date has placed him in the top six on the Penguins’ second line, which, in Malkin’s absence, has been centered by Cody Glass.
Heinen, who grew up outside of Vancouver in Langley, British Columbia, relished the opportunity to play for the Canucks for 51 games this season.
That chance came in the form of a two-year, $4.5 million deal through 2025-26 he signed with Vancouver last summer.
Overall, he contributed six goals with 12 assists in 13:57 of ice time before the recent trade to Pittsburgh brought his tenure with the Canucks to a conclusion.
“It was special for me to be back there and have the opportunity to be there and put on that jersey,” Heinen said. “Obviously, it didn’t work out. It doesn’t always work out the way you draw it up. It was just kind of a struggle year for me there. But I love all the people there, the organization — I enjoyed my time there. It’s too bad it didn’t work out, but I’m happy to be back here.”
The season prior, in 2023-24, Heinen enjoyed a resurgent campaign with the Boston Bruins, who originally drafted him 116th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft.
Following two one-year deals with the Penguins, Heinen departed the club in free agency and found himself without a home heading into the preseason.
In October of 2023, he inked a professional tryout with the Bruins, a less-than-ideal situation for Heinen, who at that point was a veteran of 413 NHL games.
But Heinen ran with things, earned a regular contract and wound up putting together one of his best NHL seasons, scoring 17 goals with 19 assists in 74 games.
“There was a lot of uncertainty that year with the PTO and everything, but, another spot I was familiar with,” Heinen said. “The guys there and the coaching staff I was familiar with, so for me, I thought it was a good spot to be, and I had an awesome time that year. It was fun to be a part of that group that year.”
Moving forward, what the Penguins opt to do with Heinen remains to be seen, particularly when some of the club’s aforementioned mainstays return to full health.
However things develop, the Penguins are hopeful Heinen can rise to the occasion.
“He has the ability to play up with some of our skilled guys,” Sullivan said. “He can play with (Crosby’s) line, he can play with (Malkin) and we’ve used him there in the past. He still has the ability, I think, to play a valuable role in the bottom six, depending on what that looks like and how we deploy our third line, depending on what our lineup looks like on a given night.”
