Whether Ryan Donato ever leads the Chicago Blackhawks again in goals won’t matter.
The scrappy forward is sticking around for the long haul, agreeing to terms Wednesday on a four-year, $16 million contract through the 2028-29 season. He will have an annual salary-cap hit of $4 million.
Donato, 29, perfectly timed career highs in goals (31) and assists (31) — and placed second on the Hawks in points with 62, five behind Connor Bedard — last season before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
It remains to be seen whether it was an aberration — he nearly doubled his previous high of 16 goals for the Seattle Kraken in 2021-22 — but throughout the season Donato repeatedly expressed his desire to stay with the Hawks through their rebuild.
“Ryan brings energy and competes hard every game, which has been a huge asset to our team over the last two seasons,” general manager Kyle Davidson said in a team statement. “He’s been a crucial part of our offense, and we’re excited for Ryan to continue to make a difference in our lineup for the next four years.”
The 6-foot, 190-pound Boston native was selected by his hometown Bruins in the second round of the 2014 NHL draft. He signed with the Hawks two seasons ago, carrying a $2 million cap hit.
Donato had 12 goals and 18 assists in 78 games in 2023-24, but exploded with a 62-point campaign in a career-high 80 games. Donato credited improvement in his skating but also said he reached a higher level mentally too.
“A lot of blessings this year,” he said in April. “Starting it off with the newborn was definitely the biggest blessing of the year for me. It really helped my mindset this year. I was just happy I could help the team grow.
“Obviously we would have liked to be in the playoffs, and something to push for, but definitely happy with the results. But I always think there’s room to grow for me, and something that I want to do this year.”
He had his most productive season, shooting a career-high 17% and posting his best faceoff numbers (44.6%) with a minimum 20 games, but he kept it in perspective.
“It was definitely great to see that I could accomplish that,” Donato said of his 31 goals. “It’s something that I worked really hard for and it’s nice. But I’d also love to push the team to be in a spot where you make the playoffs at the same time.”
Though Donato doubles his salary, he stays in the range of Hawks forwards such as Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Dickinson.