Former Homegrown Bruin Makes Admission Before Boston Return

Jake DeBrusk won’t be the only former Bruin visiting TD Garden on Tuesday night.

So will Danton Heinen, who joined DeBrusk for the trek from Boston to Vancouver over the offseason. Heinen, who played his first five seasons of professional hockey in the Bruins organization, was coming off his second tour of duty in Boston when he latched on with the Canucks. And it was a great bounce-back for the 29-year-old, who turned a professional tryout into a regular season where he played all but eight games.

Heinen parlayed his 36-point campaign into a two-year, $4.5 million deal with Vancouver. But before he signed on the dotted line with the Canucks, Heinen and the Bruins flirted with a reunion.

“There was a little bit but just kind of never ended up coming together,” Heinen told reporters, per MassLive. “It is what it is. I’m happy here too.”

Heinen is off to a pretty good start with the Canucks by his standards. Like DeBrusk, he played in all of Vancouver’s first 19 games and his plus-4 rating ranks fourth-best on the club. But it’s been a so-so start as a whole for the Canucks, whose 23 points were good for fifth place in the Pacific Contest as of Tuesday.

NESN’s complete coverage of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final rematch will begin at 6 p.m. ET.