The Chicago Blackhawks made a crucial move last Thursday, inking forward Ryan Donato to a 4 year $16 million contract extension.
The 29 year forward is coming off the best season of his career having accumulated 31 goals and 31 assists for 62 points in 80 games last year. Over the course of his 8 year tenure so far the Boston Massachusetts native has produced 108 goals and 119 assists for 227 points in 483 games. Prior to the 24-25 season, Donato had never totaled more than 31 points in a season, a mark of how impressive his year was.
This was a well earned contract for Donato who in his second season with the Blackhawks more than doubled his point total from the prior year. Having established himself as a leader and well liked man in the room, the Hawks saw fit to not trade him at last years deadline and lock him up for the foreseeable future. Ryan will be expected to play a key role as the Hawks look to start ascending up the standings and come out of this rebuild.
It will be curious to see what Donato’s productivity looks like over these next 4 years. Can he prove that his late breakout season last year was not an outlier? One would expect him to get plenty of reps moving forward with Connor Bedard.
With the $4 million AAV, this contract does not break the bank for a Hawks team that still has over $20 million in cap space to utilize this offseason. It will be interesting to see what further moves they make to strengthen this core as free agency begins July 1.
