TAMPA, Fla. — Blackhawks forward Ryan Donato claims to have a lifetime of experience blocking out noise. This season, he has demonstrated that.
With Taylor Hall moved out, the 28-year-old journeyman is potentially next up on the Hawks’ trade block, although the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline remains a while away and general manager Kyle Davidson said Monday he doesn’t have any more active discussions at the moment.
Donato’s attractiveness on the market is a testament to his consistency and productivity in difficult circumstances. With 14 goals — plus 14 assists — in 47 games, he entered Tuesday two goals away from tying the career high he set in 2021-22 in Seattle, and he has nearly half the season left to exceed that mark.
Entering training camp back in September, he and Andreas Athanasiou both seemed in jeopardy of losing their regular spots in the Hawks’ lineup. Since then, they’ve followed completely different trajectories, with Athanasiou indeed falling into the AHL and Donato most definitely not.
Now, as the trade rumors begin to swirl, Donato plans to approach this new speculation the same as the former.
“I just try to focus on playing,” Donato said recently. “At the beginning of the season, people were saying, ‘Do you worry about not being in the lineup?’ I never worried about that. I just focused on what I could do. Now I’m going to do the same.
“I’m just going to play hockey and [accept that] whatever happens, happens. I’ve been happy with the way things have gone this year for myself. But I want the team to win more, and I want to be a part of that for now while I’m here.”
Hall’s departure Friday served as another reminder that trade season has officially arrived, but Donato insists that won’t change his mindset.
And that’s a good thing, because he’s one of relatively few Hawks veterans who has appeared determined to give maximum effort every night this season — despite the lack of team success. He has helped create more goals than he has received box-score credit for.
On Sunday against the Wild, for example, Donato sparked the Hawks’ rally early in the third period by first drawing a power play (on which Seth Jones scored) and then, two shifts later, skirmishing with Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian all the way up the ice, creating the space for Frank Nazar to score.
“As a group, we were pretty quiet in the locker room [at the second intermission],” Donato said. “I realized, ‘Enough talking.’ We’ve talked about the things we need to do better. So I just went out there and tried to give the team a little life.”
Offseason work he did on his skating stride and explosiveness has paid off, eliminating what was previously a crucial weakness in his skill set. He has averaged 6.1 speed bursts of 18 mph or higher per game this season, up from 4.9 last season.
For those reasons, Donato has arguably earned a contract extension in Chicago, and that isn’t entirely impossible. It’s also relevant that Davidson mentioned he won’t be as trigger-happy this winter to sell off every NHL player for a draft pick each as he has been in the past.
But it would probably be wisest to trade Donato if a decent offer — something like another third-round pick — comes in, considering it’s not guaranteed he can repeat this success next season. After all, Athanasiou excelled in 2022-23 before falling off a cliff in 2023-24, as did Taylor Raddysh — and the Hawks failed to sell high on either of them.
The Hawks also still need to clear roster spots for college prospects Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel, all of whom Davidson might persuade to sign entry-level contracts in March or April by dangling the reward of late-season NHL appearances.