The better Blackhawks forward Ryan Donato plays, the more he raises his trade value — but also the more he makes a case to stay with the Hawks beyond this season.
Donato exploded for a career-high four points Friday, powering the Hawks to a rare 6-2 blowout victory over the Predators — tying the team’s season high for goals in a game.
Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, Teuvo Teravainen, Alex Vlasic and Seth Jones all enjoyed multi-point nights, as well, as the Hawks won for just the fifth time in their last 21 games.
“[I] see a lot of guys smiling walking out of here,” Nazar said. “Guys are in a better mood and more happy. That’s what happens when we go out there and put up a lot of goals.”
Donato, a pending free agent, now leads the Hawks with 18 goals this season, having already exceeded his own single-season career high. He has 21 points in his last 26 games.
On Friday, he set up power-play goals by Bedard and Jones with perfectly placed cross-ice passes. He also beat Predators goalie Juuse Saros twice himself, sliding a backhander through Saros’ legs for the Hawks’ fourth goal and ripping a wrist shot past Saros to conclude a crazy shift for the Hawks’ sixth goal.
“He’s hotter than burnt toast,” Jones said. “He always has that work ethic, and that’s where his game really stems from. And he gets rewarded because of the work he puts in.”
On one hand, Donato sets an excellent example for the Hawks’ young forwards. On the other hand, the Hawks are in position to sell high on a career journeyman. Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson will have to weigh both angles before the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline.
Ryan Donato finds the back of the net shortly after a ridiculous sequence in the Nashville crease, 6-1 Chicago!#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/AxayFPtsYl
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) February 8, 2025
Well-timed break
The league’s international break this month comes at an ideal time in an otherwise less-than-ideal situation for Hawks forward Jason Dickinson.
Dickinson will miss roughly four weeks due to the high ankle sprain he suffered Wednesday against the Oilers, which is a lot shorter than feared when it looked like his knee — rather than his ankle — might have been the injured joint.
He’ll be able to progress halfway through his recovery period during the new “4 Nations Face-Off” that begins next week. He could return as soon as early March, coincidentally sometime around the trade deadline.
“He impacts [the game] in such a big way, more than just points or score-sheet stats,” Connor Murphy said Friday. “And [he’s] just a leader in general for us, so it sucks to see him go down.”
Bedard’s test
Sorensen recently talked to Bedard about starting to match him up against opposing teams’ top lines, and that’s exactly what Sorensen has done the last two games.
Bedard went head-to-head most shifts Wednesday against Oilers star Connor McDavid’s line, and he went head-to-head some shifts Friday against Predators star Filip Forsberg’s line. He held his own defensively in both situations.
“We challenged Connor, and he wanted the challenge — he wanted to play against those guys,” Sorensen said. “That’s part of the learning curve. When you’re the No. 1 center, you have to play against other teams’ No. 1 centers. It was great.”
Offensively, Bedard responded to the recent cyclone of discourse about his play by producing his 11th multi-point game of the season, including a ripped one-timer for his 16th goal.
That marked his 108th career NHL point (in his 122nd career game), which moved him into third in NHL history in points by a teenager. He trails only Sidney Crosby and Patrik Laine.