Prosthetic valve with atrial tissue anchors having variable flexibility and ventricular tissue anchors having constant flexibility

An expandable prosthetic valve for implantation within a native heart valve, the prosthetic valve configured to have a contracted configuration and an expanded configuration, the prosthetic valve comprising:

• an annular valve body;
• a plurality of atrial anchoring arms configured to extend radially outward from the annular valve body, each atrial anchoring arm having a proximal arm end and a distal arm end, wherein at least one of the plurality of atrial anchoring arms comprises:
• a proximal portion,
• a flexible distal portion situated between the proximal portion and the distal arm end of the at least one atrial anchoring arm, and
• a tissue grasping feature situated at a distal end of the proximal portion, the tissue grasping feature being the portion of the proximal portion with the largest width;
• and
• a plurality of ventricular anchoring legs configured to extend radially outward from the annular valve body, each ventricular anchoring leg having a proximal leg end and a distal leg end, wherein each of the ventricular anchoring legs has a substantially constant flexibility from the proximal leg end to the distal leg end;
• and
• an annular outer frame;
• wherein, when the prosthetic valve is in the expanded configuration, the tissue grasping feature of the proximal portion of the at least one atrial anchoring arm is positioned the same distance from a center of the annular valve as the distal leg end of at least one of the ventricular anchoring legs;
• further wherein a connector pin is situated at an intersection of at least one venticular anchoring leg and two adjacent struts of the annular outer frame.