Looking to add a veteran to their bottom-six depth, the Chicago Blackhawks have agreed to a two-year, $4 million free-agent contract with Ryan Donato on Saturday to add to a flurry of moves this week by general manager (GM) Kyle Davidson.
On June 26, Chicago acquired Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno from the Boston Bruins for some veteran presences in their locker room around top pick Connor Bedard. Hall has two more years remaining with an average annual value (AAV) of $6 million, and they signed Foligno to a one-year, $4 million contract on June 27. Now Donato gives them another bottom-six presence.
Chicago Will Be Donato’s Fifth Team in Seven Seasons
Donato is coming off of two good back-to-back seasons with the Seattle Kraken and played a part in them making the Western Conference playoffs in just their second season. In 71 regular season games, he had 14 goals and 13 assists after setting career highs in goals (16) and assists (15) in his first season in Seattle after signing as a free agent in September of 2021.
Selected in the second round, 56th overall, in the 2014 Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins, the Harvard University product made an immediate impact in just 12 games in the 2017-18 season with five goals and nine points. The following season in 34 games, his production dropped to six goals and nine points before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline that sent Charlie Coyle to the Bruins. He played a season and a half with the Wild with 18 goals and 21 assists. He spent the 56-game shortened 2020-21 season with the San Jose Sharks and had six goals and 14 assists.
In 14 playoff games this season, Donato had two assists and played a part in the Kraken upsetting the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Donato’s Fit With Blackhawks
Donato is not going to log a lot of minutes a night for the Blackhawks as he averages 12:28 in his career, but he’s going to provide physical shifts, energy-shifting shifts, and key penalty-killing minutes. He’ll be slotted down the lineup, but he is going to help add offense and quality forechecking shifts.
Related: 2023 NHL Free Agency Tracker
It’s clear that Davidson is trying to excel the rebuild in Chicago and they are going to be a different-looking team in 2023-24. Hall and Foligno were valuable to the Bruins the last couple of seasons, now they add Donato to a team that had a great 2023 Entry Draft in Nashville. This is a low-risk, high-reward move for the Blackhawks and it should pay dividends as they look to take the first step into returning as a Stanley Cup contender.