The 17-year old rookie played his 30th game of the season against Tappara U20 in HPK:s second line. He played 14:27 and had impressive six shots on goal – HPK had a total of 45 shots but scored no goals. The game in full was quite a nightmare for the small winger, as he was on ice on all three of Tappara’s goals – one of them on the empty net though.

HPK was mostly forced to shoot from a distance despite keeping the puck a lot more than the visiting team. Heinänen, like his center Santtu Hakanen, another small forward, was forced to battle against bigger opponent players all the time, and circle in the corners. What impressed me was his awareness on the defensive situations and forecheck. Heinänen kept a good distance to opponents and wasn’t afraid to battle for the puck.

The main impression is he seems like a good two-way forward with some knack for scoring. However, based on this game, it will remain to be seen whether he can improve against bigger opponents and really make a difference in tougher games like this, and whether his stickhandling and shot will improve into a really effective level.

His point-per-game ratio this season (0,8) is impressive, as he scored less points per game last season when he was with Jr. B team.