This came out of nowhere.
The Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks made another trade, this time a one-for-one swapping of players. Danton Heinen heads west in exchange for Nick Ritchie who will come east.
Heinen has seven goals and 22 points in 58 games this season. Ritchie has eight goals and 19 points in 41 games. The former Ducks winger has one more year left on his deal after this one with a cap-hit of $1.5 million. Heinen’s deal has the same term left, but carries a cap-hit of $2.8 million.
With Ritchie, the Bruins add a bit of size, as the 6’2″ and 230 lb winger will give Boston’s offensive front more physicality. He leads the league in penalty minutes per 60 minutes at 2.34.
Heinen had become more phased out with the emergence of Anders Bjork. At Monday’s practice, Heinen was bumped down with the extra forwards outside of the top four lines. Ondrej Kase’s projected to slot in on the right side with David Krejci. Karson Kuhlman will move down to play with Charlie Coyle and Bjork, phasing out Heinen anyways.
When it comes to advanced offensive stats, Ritchie actually has the edge, according to Natural Stat Trick. His xGF/60 (2.58) slots higher than Heinen’s (1.9). With HDCF/60, Ritchie is also better — 12.46 vs. 8.58. And on the topic of high-danger chances, Ritchie leads in HDGF/60 33.67 to 30.08.
The only criticism of the deal is Heinen could’ve been packaged for more. With the Bruins rumored to be in on Kyle Palmieri over the past few weeks, Heinen could’ve been apart of a deal to land the scoring winger from New Jersey. Instead, the Bruins opt to use Heinen in a one-for-one to get bigger up front.
There’s nothing wrong with the deal. Ritchie is a fine player and there’s a case to be made that he may be an upgrade from Heinen.
It’s just that the Bruins probably could’ve used Heinen to get more in return.
