Danton Heinen’s next move is still up in the air, and Columbus is giving him the space to sort it out.
According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, the Blue Jackets forward did not “immediately” report to AHL Cleveland after clearing waivers last week. Heinen is reportedly weighing his options, while the organization is allowing him the time he needs to decide what comes next in his career.
For a player who once burst onto the scene with a 47-point rookie season in Boston, the situation says plenty about where his game sits now. The 31-year-old has settled into more of a depth role, a far cry from the two-way third-line winger he used to be.
Even so, there’s a clear reason he’d want to think carefully about his future. Since the 2016-17 season, the 2014 fourth-round pick has appeared in just 17 AHL games as a prospect.
And when he got a 12-game look with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season, he made it count, piling up 17 points. Heinen then signed a two-way deal to remain in Ohio this season, made the NHL roster, and went scoreless in 10 games while averaging 10:10 per night, the lowest usage of his 11-year career.
Columbus is also being mindful of the bigger picture. The Monsters are 26th in the AHL and already carrying a veteran-heavy group that includes Steven Lorentz, who has seven goals in nine games, plus Carson Soucy, who just joined the team.
However this shakes out, the Blue Jackets are making sure they handle the British Columbia native with respect. Heinen has played 622 NHL games.
Around the league, Vegas has another blue-line problem to manage. Noah Hanifin is week-to-week after the injury he suffered Sunday against the Sabres, according to SinBin.vegas.
The defenseman absorbed a hard hit from Buffalo’s Tyson Kozak, with the play captured in a clip shared by Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Golden Knights have already been juggling injuries on defense, with Parker Wotherspoon sidelined and Ville Heinola moving between the AHL and the NHL.
Dylan Coghlan has also been pushed into a bigger role, already appearing in 11 games for Vegas this season, which is more NHL action than he had over the previous three years combined. Even with the injuries piling up, Vegas keeps rolling.
The Golden Knights are sixth in the league and have allowed the seventh-fewest goals in the NHL. They’re back in action tomorrow against Utah, and it sounds likely Heinola will be summoned again while Hanifin targets a late-November return.
San Jose’s Mason Marchment was also hit with discipline, receiving a $5,000 fine for roughing, the maximum allowed, from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. The incident came last night after Marchment fought New York’s Victor Eklund.
The retaliation followed a questionable hit into the boards by the Islander on Kiefer Sherwood, but the league ruled Marchment went too far. Marchment had previously been fined for interference in 2024, though his record is otherwise fairly clean for a player who averages 70 penalty minutes over an 82-game season.
He has four goals in 20 games this year, and the Sharks picked up a shootout win last night as they try to dig out of an uneven start.
Florida, meanwhile, got a more encouraging sight at morning skate. Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand were both on the ice with the Panthers in Columbus, a sign that their returns are getting closer.
Head coach Paul Maurice said they are “within two weeks” of being back. The Panthers are hanging onto a Wild Card spot early, a better place than last season’s injury-riddled disappointment, but they could still use help.
They’re 5-5-0 in their last 10 and sitting in the middle of the pack in the NHL. If Maurice’s timeline holds, Barkov and Marchand could be available for the end of Florida’s three-game home stand from November 17-25, which includes matchups with Edmonton, Buffalo and Ottawa.
In Other News...
Sam Bennett Delivered In A Panthers Win They Really Needed
Florida got the kind of response it had been looking for at Nationwide Arena, leaning on Sam Bennett to steady things in a 4-1 win over Columbus. Bennett scored twice, Anton Lundell and Aaron Ekblad each picked up assists, and the result pushed the Panthers to 10-7-2 as they tried to settle in after a stretch that had left little margin for error.
Columbus, meanwhile, could only manage one goal in a night where Florida controlled enough of the important moments to keep the Blue Jackets chasing. Ivan Provorov provided the lone tally for Columbus, but the bigger question for the Jackets is how they regroup after a loss that dropped them to 7-9-0 and again exposed how hard it can be to keep pace when the game tilts away early. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jackets Face A Big Test Tonight With Lineup Questions Looming
The Blue Jackets get another measuring-stick night against Florida, and they do it with some lineup uncertainty hanging over the room. Columbus enters at 27-22-8 and has generally handled the Panthers well at home, where it has gone 17-8-4 in the matchup, but the bigger question is how the group holds up if the projected forward mix gets altered before puck drop. For a team trying to keep its footing in the standings, these are the kinds of games that can reveal how much depth matters.
The injury picture is part of what makes this one worth watching beyond the opponent. Isac Lundestrom has been lightly skating after Achilles surgery, which at least offers a hint of progress, while Conor Garlands status remains unsettled after he was scratched with an upper-body injury. With the game on the schedule and the usual broadcast options in place, the Blue Jackets will have to navigate both the Panthers and the uncertainty around who is actually available to play. [Read more 🡒]