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.