Penguins forward Danton Heinen stays upbeat despite ineffective season

Danton Heinen didn’t provide much for the Penguins on Tuesday in their thrilling 2-1 comeback overtime home win against the Colorado Avalanche.

It was almost like he was invisible.

But then again, he was a healthy scratch.

With the Penguins’ forward ranks dealing with an outbreak of complete health, Heinen was the odd man out and took in the game as a spectator.

And that’s been the case on a fairly frequent basis in his second campaign with the club.

A healthy scratch for eight of the team’s first 50 games, Heinen largely has struggled throughout the 2022-23 season after offering quite a bit of promise in 2021-22.

A shrewd offseason signing in July 2021, Heinen set a career-high with 18 goals while totaling 33 points in 76 games.

After re-signing with the team on a one-year contract last July, it looked like that success would carry over to this season as he put up six points (three goals, three assists) in the first five games.

What followed that strong start was 34 games — excluding several healthy scratches — and no goals.

That slump was broken late in January when Heinen scored goals in consecutive games, a 7-6 home overtime win Jan. 24 against the Panthers and a 3-2 shootout road loss to the Capitals on Jan. 26.

In total, Heinen has a mundane 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in 42 games this season.

“It’s been inconsistent for me,” Heinen said on Sunday at the team’s facility in Cranberry. “It’s been up and down. I had a good start. Dropped off from there. A few games (before) the (bye week and All-Star Game event break), I felt better. Not only just because a couple went in. Just feeling better out there. The legs felt better. Physically, I felt a lot better. For me, that’s a positive. Just going to try to play with as much confidence as I can.”

Heinen’s upbeat attitude doesn’t go unnoticed by his teammates.

“Externally, he seems to be a really high-character guy when it comes to those things,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “He seems to have the same attitude, same mentality to try to get better every day. Obviously, when you go through stretches that aren’t great for you, it can be easy to have poor body language or just not be happy around the rink.”

Heinen doesn’t appear to have room for self pity.

“Perspective is huge,” Heinen said. “Everybody hates being out of the lineup and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to just kind of take a step back and realize you’re still in the NHL. You’ve got to be grateful for what you have. You’ve just got to work your way out of it.”

When Heinen gets a chance to work again is anyone’s guess. At the moment, it would appear an injury or just a run of poor play by some other incumbent member of the lineup would be his only avenue back on the ice, at least in a Penguins jersey.

But for the time being, he vows to steer himself back into the form that made him a viable contributor last season.

“I’ve had a few slumps here or there,” Heinen said. “You try to go back to things that get you out of them. But I haven’t been through one (as long as his 34-game skid earlier this season). It tests you a little bit. It tests you mentally. But you get out of it and it makes you stronger in the end.”

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