Ducks acquire Danton Heinen from Bruins for Nick Ritchie

In another deal on a busy trade deadline day, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the Anaheim Ducks have traded forward Nick Ritchie to the Boston Bruins for forward Danton Heinen.

Heinen has been a good middle-six forward with above-average defensive skills that has also seen time in his career on Boston’s top line alongside Patrice Bergeron. The 24-year-old currently has 22 points on the year (7G, 15A) and has 103 career points in 220 games. His most productive year was next to Bergeron his rookie season 47 points (16G, 31A) in 2017-18.

Nick Ritchie has been a very polarizing player in his time with Anaheim. He has taken a lot of penalties, but has also been one of the team’s better play driving forwards; when he is on the ice, the Ducks tend to play in the offensive zone a lot more and outscore their opponents. That has never really translated to high point totals for the former 10th overall pick, though, with his career high coming in at just 31 points last season.

According to Evolving-Hockey’s GAR (Goals Above Replacement) model, Ritchie and Heinen are about even at 1.5 GAR for Heinen and 1.2 for Ritchie. However, over the past three seasons, Heinen has put up 20.7 GAR while Ritchie has put up just 6.2. It appears that Bob Murray might see higher upside in Heinen while simultaneously wanting to improve the discipline of his club.