The Boston Bruins are going to try their luck with a different Ritchie brother. The Bruins have acquired Nick Ritchie from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Danton Heinen. Brett Ritchie meanwhile is currently playing for the Providence Bruins.
The new Bruins’ winger will fit right into the culture that Boston has built as a physical, grinding team, but it’s hard to know exactly where his ceiling is at this point. The 24-year old Ritchie was a 10th-overall pick in 2014 but has a career-high of 14 goals to this point. In fact, his eight goals and 19 points this year would look even worse if this trade had happened just a day ago—Ritchie had a career-high four-point game for Anaheim yesterday, scoring twice.
That physical presence may fit better in Buffalo than Heinen, but the Ducks will hope they can get the best out of their talented new forward. The 24-year old Heinen has been a frustratingly-underwhelming presence in the Boston lineup this season, but has a history of success. In 2017-18 as a rookie he scored 16 goals and 47 points, but has gone steadily downhill ever since.
Both players are signed through 2020-21, but Heinen’s $2.8MM cap hit is almost twice the size of Ritchie’s $1.498MM salary. That opens up a bit more room for the Bruins, who also cleared space in the recent Ondrej Kase–David Backes deal with the same team.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet broke the trade on Twitter.