The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly nearing a four-year, $16MM contract extension with forward Ryan Donato, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. The deal was later seconded by Scott Powers of The Athletic and confirmed by Charlie Roumeliotis of Chicago’s WGN Radio. The team also confirmed the move. Donato had a breakout season in 2024-25, scoring a career-high 62 points, split evenly. He was previously set to become an unrestricted free-agent on July 1st.
The Hawks will clean up an important piece of business with this move. Donato may have been the season’s biggest riser, having led Chicago in goals and ranked second in points after signing a two-year, $4MM contract in 2023. His breakout this year leaned heavily against a 17.0 shooting percentage, more than five-percent greater than his previous career-high. His total scoring ended up perfectly double his prior high of 31 points as well. Both of those marks will be difficult to sustain through multiple seasons.
With that said, Donato will have more than enough runway to maintain his top-six role in Chicago. He averaged over 16 minutes of ice time through 80 games on the year, and reached the 30-goal mark despite often getting deployed on the Hawks’ second power-play unit. The team continues to add high-tempo, playmaking talents to their roster in the form of Oliver Moore, Landon Slaggert, and Frank Nazar. Any of the three could provide Donato the surge of support – and clear space in the offensive end – that he needs to remain a top sniper with the club.
If anything brings Donato down, it’d reason to be whether he can hang onto the center role he needs to thrive. His career-year was coupled with a career-high in faceoffs taken – though his 44.6 faceoff win-rate lands firmly in the red. He made up for that drawback by fearlessly diving into the dirty areas of the ice and racking up 104 hits on the year, good for third-most on the Blackhawks.
While his new price tag likely banks on Donato maintaining some layer of scoring, it’s likely his hard-nosed effort that Chicago’s excited to keep around. They’ll rank as one of the – if not thee – youngest teams in the NHL next season and will rely heavily on aged veterans to prop up the roster. With this deal out of the way, Chicago will move forward just over $25MM in projected cap space – plenty enough to bring in multiple strong additions to the top-six.
Yikes! Donato sure fooled Kyle Davidson.
Not really. 4 mill a year for a 62 point season is actually cheap. Probably would have gotten more. A rare Davidson win
Yeah I agree. Even if his production dips (as many expect it to) 4M for a depth player on a growing cap ceiling isn’t a bad deal by any means. Even if it does become a bad deal, by the time the team is really ready to compete that contract will be rolling off the books
I meant more because I’ve seen guys get a lot more for career years and Marner is about to get paid more than a lot better players who actually have a ring and more than one 100 point+ season
62 points one time, Previously, Not even close, It was also a contract year for Donato, Davidson fell for the trap, It’s alot of money for a fourth liner.
Wow you’re slow and notice how nobody likes your original comment. What team do you cheer for?
Notice how it’s Irrelevant is to what people think of my comments, Donato is a career 4th liner, And his numbers will prove me right this upcoming season.
Hey Sparky – did you even see a single Hawks game last year? Honest question.
And of course you can’t say who your fav team is and it is relevant because you’ve clearly never seen how team sign players after career years 🤡
Man, all I know is that folks were up in arms when Florida paid (“overpaid”) Reinhart for a career season last year. That seemed to work out, if my memory of this season and last night serves.
Several, And honestly, San Jose was more entertaining to watch.
I do indeed see it all the time, It’s also usually what gets GMs in trouble. You are the guy that would give Marchand 21 million on a three year deal this summer.
There are exceptions to every rule.
The absolute dumbest take in all of hockey fandom is the “overpay”. I sit on my couch and am usually the first to post on idiot boards, but I know more than an office full of lifetime hockey professionals including player analysts, economists and lawyers… so I can say stupid stuff because my opinion is actually worth what I’m paid for it… and when I say “Donato sure fooled Kyle Davidson”… I sound so smart.
Not really sure who is fooling who here. Donato was quite good last year, and he’s getting paid $4. Even if he’s half the player this year, he’s still worth the money.
I’m not necessarily surprised that Ryan Donato is signing a new deal with Chicago. He had a career year this past season with Chicago but the question will be was it a fluke-like season (not that he’s a bad player by any means) or has he reached a new level?…We’ll find out.
Honestly at this price and term I don’t think it matters. Similar to Dickinson last year I think most would expect at least some modest regression. If he does manage to come close to maintaining this year’s form the contract will be excellent.
Even if he goes down to 20 goals 20 assists 4 million is decent for that production on a team with desperate need for it
Wow I’m shocked Donato didn’t try to get more cash. This is gonna hurt contract negotiations for guys like Rossi and possibly Bennett though with Bennett winning the Conn Smyth he’s going to get paid. Again I’m with the majority that believe Donato will not repeat this however I think he coulda cashed in a bit more. most teams salivate to sign these guys with one career year under their belt and pay way too much. Good for Chicago I guess!
I think it’s a great deal for CHI. Dunno if he’ll get the reps, but I think he can outperform last season with top 6 minutes.
Ryan Donato, 8 years, 5 teams, Nuff said!
it’s like your talking to yourself 😂😂😂
HockeyNato 31 goals in a season.. NUFF SAID!
Chicago is going to be pressed to hit the cap floor… for the next few seasons. They’re going to be in on McKenna next season and probably understand much better the value of a player like Donato in the overall development path of their team than GoldenShowerSparky… but you be you.
This is actually a solid extension, I was expecting him to get 5-6 but for 4 is a win for the hawks. Much better than the Bickell deal years ago.
An excellent value for the Hawks. Donato gets to stay in the city he and his family like on a deal that keeps him in one place for several years, finally. As others have said, even if he regresses a little, it’s still excellent value for another leader on a very young team. This was an absolute no-brainer.
Good deal. Won’t kill their cap and he’s an active, current, capable NHL player who isn’t on the downside.
This team desperately needs skilled NHL-level players in their 20s (yes, I know he’s 29, but it still counts).
I saw a fair amount of the Hawks last year, I think Donato is more like Bryan Rust than a fluke.
Rust just kept growing his game and went from a mid six, half a point a game guy to a top line player. Donato’s ceiling is likely not that high, but good player at a good price.
The Hawks rebuild took a large step backwards last season, Davidson will be on the hot seat if Chicago has another dumpster fire campaign.
How does having more points that the previous year a step back.. Are you just bad at math?
He’s probably an oilers or leafs fan they’re not known for being smart 😂
It is Wilf. He’s back and on one of his heaters.
So, Donato may have been a third or fourth liner on the Kraken, but he worked hard every minute he was on the ice. I wish we could have kept him.
I agree, but I think the Kraken realized he wasn’t on the same timetable and they let him explore his opportunities.
I was of the opinion that the Hawks should be done with the ” 4 million” Dollar players and that I’d rather see a young guy take the job at this point in the rebuild. Donato isn’t really a needle moving player to me. It’s probably a decent value for him as he was basically underpaid the last 2 years at 2 million a year so it’s the age old question Nha Trang keeps posing. Are we paying for the guys future or past? I mean teams need role players too. You just don’t want 12 of them as your forwards. I thought we were past that point and should be hunting bigger game now. Supposedly Donato worked hard on his skating last year and improved vastly so is last year a fluke or not? Guess we’ll see now.
I wonder what this contract does for Morgan Geekie. There is speculation that he could get 6-7 million per year extension from the Bruins. Donato’s contract doesn’t help him.