News Article: “Why Did Bruins Fans Dislike Danton Heinen So Much?”

[Dr Hook]

I always liked him, still do. The article should be called "Why did SOME Bruins fans dislike Danton Heinen So Much."

Outside of that, great article, Joe- felt that should be added

 

[LouJersey]

great stuff Joe!

Next year at this time there will be a similar Anders Bjork thread.

 

[Gordoff]

The more I think about it in retrospect I'm wondering if maybe he should've been sent to Providence
at some point early on to hone his offensive confidence? (Maybe he was? I just don't remember and haven't the time to delve that much into it.) His defensive game was on par but his physicality and offensive skills were not (IMO) allowed to grow because the Bruins see mostly kids who can score (and coming up they've learned to deal with the physical game) when they're drafted so they have to emphasize the defensive aspects of the game. Heinen already had that down but the other end that most other players seem to possess wasn't his strong suit, like at all.
All in all though I guess maybe NHL teams aren't as geared toward "teaching" offense and the more baser stuff because that's usually the easy part of the game for most players who've come this far.

 

[ODAAT]

JDB has been irritating me a bit this year, too. That said, one thing I'm sure of is that JDB will elevate his game come April. He even goes into a bit of an agitating role. Everything about Heinen seems to stay the same when April hits, that extra gear seems non existent.

yep, as I stated, I have always tried to be a fan boy but one who doesn`t always have the blinders on when discussing a player I like and Heinen never elevated his game come post season, not like he hurt the team defensively but sure didn`t make things a bit easier by providing secondary scoring or any physical bite

 

[Salem13]

In this analogy, Heinen is a quarter that turned into a dollar, then back into a quarter and got stuck in the Coke machine halfway through his rookie season.

For this to be true Nick Ritchie is either that value or the Ducks management fools.
Even the haters have to admit in the end he had a tangible worth.


HF-A: We have to make our team better by trading our sucky guy for someone good - TRADE DANTON!

HF-B: Danton is not sucky guy! Look, reasons!

HF-A: I still have dislike or not willing or prefer not to address reasons.

HF-B: OK, still, sucky guy isn't worth players we want.


Heinen actually traded for decent player.


HF-A/B: We have not changed our views in any way!

 

[Dr Hook]

Another great point in there is the JDB comparison. Heinen was "soft" but DeBrusk is not perceived that way. Except in reality, Jake is pretty soft. He hardly throws hits, get pushed off pucks etc. I guess because he takes some spectacular spills out there he is rugged? Heinen went to the net front and took his lumps as often as, and probably more than, Jake does.

 

[ODAAT]

Another great point in there is the JDB comparison. Heinen was "soft" but DeBrusk is not perceived that way. Except in reality, Jake is pretty soft. He hardly throws hits, get pushed off pucks etc. I guess because he takes some spectacular spills out there he is rugged? Heinen went to the net front and took his lumps as often as, and probably more than, Jake does.

good pt Dr, Heinen was soft IMO in the way that he rarely if ever actually used his body to separate an opponent from the puck with a strong physical hit, he has always relied more on an active stick when a battle along the walls was taking place but Heinen isn`t a soft player, he`s one who plays with sandpaper that is 8 years old which is similar to Jake

I think the "complaint" that always bothered me most about Heinen from fans were those here who questioned how much he cared because he never showed emotion and as we all know, Jake can get a touch crazy out there post goal .

 

[BlackFrancis]

For this to be true Nick Ritchie is either that value or the Ducks management fools.
Even the haters have to admit in the end he had a tangible worth.


HF-A: We have to make our team better by trading our sucky guy for someone good - TRADE DANTON!

HF-B: Danton is not sucky guy! Look, reasons!

HF-A: I still have dislike or not willing or prefer not to address reasons.

HF-B: OK, still, sucky guy isn't worth players we want.


Heinen actually traded for decent player.


HF-A/B: We have not changed our views in any way!

You should have continued with the quarter analogy and said Ritchie is what happens when you rock the Coke machine to get your quarter back and it winds up falling on you.

 

[Absurdity]

Not physical enough, primarily a passer, doesn't hit, doesn't produce enough with any linemates he plays with.

 

[Dr Hook]

Not physical enough, primarily a passer, doesn't hit, doesn't produce enough with any linemates he plays with.

.5 PPG for a guy that was mostly used as a 3rd liner is not enough? The great Chris Kreider who many here were willing to sell the farm to acquire is a .6 ppg player, and less than that in the playoffs and he is a consisten top 6 guy. Danton brought value to the game and to the team beyond ppg. I still think it was a good trade for the Bruins to make, but they moved him for basically a guy who "doesn't produce enough" himself by that measure.

 

[Dr Hook]

You should have continued with the quarter analogy and said Ritchie is what happens when you rock the Coke machine to get your quarter back and it winds up falling on you.

Or you become the guy in Maximum Overdrive that hits the machine and it hits back in a bad spot:

 

[Sheppy]

.5 PPG for a guy that was mostly used as a 3rd liner is not enough? The great Chris Kreider who many here were willing to sell the farm to acquire is a .6 ppg player, and less than that in the playoffs and he is a consisten top 6 guy. Danton brought value to the game and to the team beyond ppg. I still think it was a good trade for the Bruins to make, but they moved him for basically a guy who "doesn't produce enough" himself by that measure.

.47 points per game, and .27 in the post season.

 

[Ratty]

Heinen plays for another team now. I'm done with him. Movin' on.

 

[Dr Hook]

.47 points per game, and .27 in the post season.

Close enough to illustrate the pretty minimal difference with Kreider the Greek God that everyone here was pining over and then totally pissed off when he went off the table which was my only point.

 

[Sheppy]

Close enough to illustrate the pretty minimal difference with Kreider the Greek God that everyone here was pining over and then totally pissed off when he went off the table which was my only point.

Fair.

However, I think Kreider's style would have been a great benefit to the Bruins in April.

 

[BruinsFanSince94]

.47 points per game, and .27 in the post season.

And the last two seasons, he has produced at a 0.42 PPG. His first season really propels his numbers and he hasn't come close to replicating that. He's a good player but it was time to move on.

 

[Dr Hook]

Fair.

However, I think Kreider's style would have been a great benefit to the Bruins in April.

Possibly- I wasn't 100% against signing the guy though I think his new contract is a Backes special. But yeah, there is more to it than production and stylistically Kreider met some needs. Heinen produced fine for his minutes and role, but I think Nick Ritchie's overall game is better for the Bruins at this point in time and it has little to do with points.

 

[Absurdity]

.5 PPG for a guy that was mostly used as a 3rd liner is not enough? The great Chris Kreider who many here were willing to sell the farm to acquire is a .6 ppg player, and less than that in the playoffs and he is a consisten top 6 guy. Danton brought value to the game and to the team beyond ppg. I still think it was a good trade for the Bruins to make, but they moved him for basically a guy who "doesn't produce enough" himself by that measure.

I agree, however to answer the OP, I think it is why other fans disliked him. I wasn't against the Bruins trading Heinen, but I think a lot of the hate thrown his way was unwarranted.

 

[BruinDust]

This article should be renamed "Why did some Bruins fans think Danton Heinen was so good"?

The fact is, this is a winger who had two just good stretches of production at the NHL level. One during November 2017 through Feb 2018 where him, Riley Nash, and David Backes caught fire for a brief period. And another when he lined up with Bergeron and Marchand around February of last year. Outside of those two stretches, he produced like a high-end 4th line winger.

Which is to say a high-end 4th line winger is a nice player to have, but far from a necessity. And when you have a 4th-to-3rd line winger who doesn't kill penalties (to be honest I don't get why he never did), doesn't have the offensive tools to be a 1st line PP guy and could easily be bumped off the 2nd unit without worry, what purpose does he serve?

He basically became a swiss-army knife, jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none winger for this team. Problem being, when you have a team as well-rounded as the Bruins, with elite, hall-of-fame worthy two-way forwards like Bergeron and Marchand, you don't really need that swiss-army knife player to be a regular part of your line-up. So here's Heinen, too good and too expensive to be the 13th F, yet not really good enough in any one facet of the game, and not producing enough, to carve out a necessary spot in the line-up on an everyday line-up.

 

[Krupp]

Well this thread blew up, as I expected...

Seriously, regardless of how 'exciting' or 'not exciting' you view Heinen, I don't care if he was a big banger like Looch or not. That was never going to be his game. Neither was being a top 6 player, if you ask me, on a CONTENDING team. On a team like Anaheim, though, as they are right now? He may just be what they need, a boost of good defensive prowess with some skills in playmaking.

I was hoping he'd rebound this year, after last year. I didn't expect 40+ points from the guy, but he didn't thrive like I was hoping for. And Jake's been frustrating as well, for very similar reasons. The difference, it seems to me, is that Jake puts the puck in the net on a somewhat more consistent basis. Could Heinen do that if he were constantly playing with Krejci, on his left wing? Maybe. Maybe he would've.

As it so happens i'm starting to think even Jake's not suitable with Krej, though. Richie might be a far better option in terms of fit. Heinen and Coyle weren't a bad pair either though, so I cannot understand what was causing the scoring slump with Heinen this year. It wasn't because he was playing with fourth line linemates. Bjork is a rook, and is still learning the game on the fly, so I can somewhat give him a pass, but Coyle has been having a quite good year so far, and Heinen should've benefitted from that as much as Coyle should've benefitted from Heinen. For whatever reason is just wasn't working out quite like that.

Heinen wasn't a defining core player of this team, I hate to say. He was a great supporting player, and that is always a good addition, but this team really lacked a hammer - as I've heard another fan say - so I understand Sweeney's decision to give Heinen a new pasture to play in and bring in some real muscle with Ritchie, which Boston is gonna need in the playoffs. It is what it is. Heinen doesn't suck. I simply think he just wasn't working as a fitting piece for the puzzle this year. As a GM, getting attached to anyone is dangerous.

I'd be really careful about resigning Jake to a big contract right now, for example ,despite his apparent ability to score 20 goals per season. I'd also be wary of Bjork's struggles. But Heinen wasn't someone I hated.

 

[incidental otter]

Your writing voice is good, and I'd have preferred you play your points against quotes from Heinen detractors.

 

[Dr Hook]

Well this thread blew up, as I expected...

Danton Heinen, the gift that keeps on giving This should be the last hurrah for the Great Heinen Debates on the forum, though. We are just getting the last of it out of our systems before moving on to someone else

 

[Alberta_OReilly_Fan]

Anybody who knows me, knew this was coming. Have to stay true to your beliefs, even when you are in the minority:


Why Did Bruins Fans Dislike Danton Heinen So Much?

i say we dislike anyone we feel is overpaid...

david backes was the prototypical bruin how he played the game... his character unsmirched... but we had a groundswell of fans demanding we send him to the minors... embarrass him into retirement... burn him at the stake

theres 2 things bruin fans will not warm too
being overpaid
and then
not being physical

we will overlook a lack of physical play if the player produces enough offense. tyler seguin wasnt hated here. david pastranak isnt hated here. but you must produce enough

so... being overpaid... not being physical... and under producing compared to expectations...

Heinen checked all the boxes

sure hes good defensively... but thats a given in boston. you dont get bonus points for simply doing what the other 17 skaters each night are also demanded to do. if you arent good defensively you wont last long in boston. its for granted all bruins are good defensively

so you got to do more
Heinen always did... just barely enough

if he ended up our whipping boy... it wasnt a surprise

 

[BigGoalBrad]

No good playoff runs and 2 poor regular seasons to follow the 1 good one.

I'm sure he'll be fine on his next team. He needed the change of scenery more than anyone we did him a favor.

 

[ON3M4N]

Even no longer on this team, Heinen generates debate like he never left