The Penguins have opted to not extend a qualifying offer to a middle-six winger that at times tantalized in black and gold but not consistently enough.
Surprisingly, that turned out to be Danton Heinen, not Kasperi Kapanen.
The Penguins did not give a qualifying offer to Heinen before Monday’s deadline, the team announced. That makes Heinen, a 27-year-old who was one of their leading goal-getters this past season, an unrestricted free agent.
Meanwhile, they retained the rights of Kapanen by giving him a qualifying offer. However, there remains work to be done with the restricted free agent.
The Penguins on Monday also extended qualifying offers to forward Kasper Bjorkqvist and defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph. Bjorkqvist recently signed a contract to play overseas. The Penguins keep his NHL rights with the qualifying offer.
Plus, they signed another RFA, Alex Nylander, to a one-year contract. It’s a two-way deal for Nylander, the former first-round draft pick who was acquired in the Sam Lafferty trade this winter, and it has a value of $750,000 at the NHL level.
In addition to Heinen, the Penguins declined to issue qualifying offers to forwards Justin Almeida, Jordy Bellerive and Jan Drozg; defensemen Niclas Almari, Cam Lee and Will Reilly; and goalie Alex D’Orio. They are now free agents.
The decision to move on from Heinen was unexpected given that he netted 18 goals last season and had a qualifying offer of just $1.1 million, per Capfriendly. Heinen had arbitration rights, though. Perhaps the Penguins were worried about the salary that an independent arbitrator might have awarded the winger.
Heinen had a case for a raise, even if just a modest one, after he provided bang for the buck last season while earning not much over the minimum salary.
He scored a goal in each of his first three games with the Penguins and had nine goals and 14 points in 30 games before the Christmas break, helping the team get through that early-season stretch of myriad injuries and illnesses.
Heinen’s scoring cooled off in the second half. And too often he was unable to make an impact in other ways, putting him in danger of dropping out of the lineup down the stretch. Another scoring outburst in April kept Heinen in the mix.
He finished the regular season with 18 goals, 33 points and a plus-6 rating in 76 games. He scored three goals in the playoffs, including the winner in Game 3 of the first-round loss to the New York Rangers and another goal in Game 7.
But the Penguins, looking to get Evgeni Malkin under contract then bolster their forward group, are hanging onto the rights to Kapanen and not Heinen.
The mercurial Kapanen, whose qualifying offer is $840,000, also has arbitration rights. If the Penguins are unable to sign the restricted free agent to a contract, he can take them to arbitration. The Penguins would then have to pay him the salary that the arbitrator settled on or trade the winger to another team.
Kapanen’s future in Pittsburgh was unsettled entering the offseason after he failed to meet lofty expectations in 2021-22 and was a healthy scratch at times.
Kapanen, who turns 26 later this month, has intriguing physical tools. He is one of their fastest straight-line players, possesses some size at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds and has a formidable right-handed shot that he occasionally utilizes.
After Kapanen had 30 points in 40 games his first season in Pittsburgh, coach Mike Sullivan hyped him up last fall, saying Kapanen could be an “elite” player.
But last season Kapanen was not as much of a threat off the rush, was reluctant to go to the net and couldn’t create offense in other ways. He had just 11 goals in 79 games and did not use his wheels to fluster opponents in puck pursuit.
Kapanen showed much more life during the playoffs but didn’t score a goal.
While his inconsistency frustrated the Penguins last season, the team still felt they needed to retain his rights. We will see if a contract soon follows.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: July 11, 2022, 5:08 p.m.
