My guess is he will likely get one last shot next year with Schenn as a partner for a run of games.
If he doesn't do anything he's waived.
It's a shame as he plays with a lot of spunk and is good at d at the AHL level but he just doesn't have the confidence and/or ability to play that way at the NHL level.
He's at an age where he has to earn a longer leash by juat playing his game.
He's likely a player who should have been moved years ago while he still had some value.
I see both sides of the argument in heinolas case:
He hasn't really done himself any favors when he's played, outside a couple strong efforts
But
He hasn't really had a run of games to really get comfortable and work out the kinks
Then you add his terrible luck with injuries, and the fact the the Jets were hell bent on making Stanley a regular.
At the end of the day, the Jets were probably one of the worst orgs for Heinola to be in at this time.
Being a true contender the last couple of years, and having a D makeup of smaller guys and lack of physicality made it hard to add another small, non physical guy to the lineup.
I think the org was really trying to make Stanley into a schenn, but this season it became obvious that is just not him as a player.
The proof of that is, they actually went out and got the real Schenn, and when we were healthy, Stan was out.
I think playoffs are going to reinforce that Stanley will never be what the org wanted him to be, and maybe, JUST MAYBE, the org will start fresh in TC with a plan to play Ville and Luke together.
In the end, it will be up to Heinola to make that last chance count. He's going to have to train like he never has before and finally show the promise that made him a first round draft puck.