It's not hard to figure out why Ryan Donato's numbers dropped

Ryan Donato was a polarizing player during the 2024-25 season. Playing in the last year of his contract, he scored a career-high 31 goals and 62 points. There was a lot of debate among Chicago Blackhawks fans heading into the 2025 trade deadline. Some wanted general manager Kyle Davidson to trade the veteran forward while his value was at an all-time high. Others wanted him to be re-signed beyond last season.

Ultimately, Donato wasn’t traded. He eventually signed a new four-year, $16 million contract extension in the summer, locking him in through the 2028-29 season. While the eight-year veteran received security for the first time in his career, he was also hit with lofty expectations unlikely to be met.

Season Review

Donato walked into training camp with a long-term contract signed and being a 30-goal scorer for the first time in his career. However, a new coaching staff was in place that would use him differently than the previous regime. While he started camp taking shifts with Connor Bedard, who he benefited greatly from playing with a season ago, he barely got any playing time with him.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Donato and Bedard were together for just over 20 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time this season. That is a dramatic decrease, considering they played well over 300 minutes together in the previous season.

“I want to find not only what best helps Ryan, but what best helps Connor,” head coach Jeff Blashill said in March. “There’s a give-and-take to those things. Ultimately, I felt better about the guys I’ve had him (Bedard) with. There’s a lot that goes into that I don’t want to talk about here, with all due respect to everybody. There’s certainly a ton that goes into all of our decision-making with who plays with who, which guys have the right game for each other. Everybody plays differently. I’m trying to maximize each one of our guys, not just one player.

“He’s done a great job. He’s been a great teammate all year. It’s great that he had a lot of goals last year, but they didn’t win that many games.”

Donato spent much of the 2024-25 season on the top power play unit. That wasn’t the case this past season, as he played 34 fewer minutes on the man advantage. He went from five goals and 14 power-play points last season to just one goal and one assist this year.

His overall ice time went down from 16:19 to 14:44. Playing less with Bedard, playing much of the year on the bottom six, less power-play time, and fewer overall minutes led to 15 goals and 30 points.

Analysis & Final Grade

Season Stats

Games played: 82
Goals: 15
Assists: 15
Power-play points: 2 (1 G, 1 A)
Plus/minus: -16
Shots on goal: 122
Shot attempts: 278
Shooting percentage: 12.3
Average time on ice: 14:44
Penalty minutes: 46
Penalties drawn: 20
Blocked shots: 21
Individual scoring chances: 138
Individual high-danger chances: 63
Corsi for percentage (CF%): 45.11
Scoring chance percentage (SCF%): 42.90
High-danger chance percentage (HDCF%): 43.41

You don’t need to have a master's degree in math or be a Hall of Fame hockey coach to figure out why Donato’s numbers dipped from last season. Fewer opportunities lead to less production. Donato had a typical season for his career. The 2024-25 season was an outlier, and he reverted to his normal self. If you remove his career-high year, he’s averaged 12 goals and 26 points per season, so this was another above-average season for him.

Donato was the only Blackhawk to play in all 82 games. Even with the decreased playing time, he was still third on the team in scoring chances. He had far more high-danger scoring chances than Andre Burakovsky, who spent most of the season with Bedard. His shooting percentage dipped about 5%, but was still pretty good at 12.3%. He took 58 fewer shots this season, so had he had the same total for 2024-25, he would have had 17 goals.

On a team that was relatively easy to play against, Donato was one of the few guys who made life difficult for the opponent. He was hard on the forecheck and always willing to bring physicality and energy. He was tied with Frank Nazar for the second-most penalties drawn with 20; only Bedard had more with 26. It’s easy to see why Nazar and Bedard draw so many penalties with their speed and skill. Donato does it through hard work and willingness to go to the dirty areas of the ice and take some punishment.

Final Grade

If you were expecting Donato to have another 30-goal season, you were setting yourself up for disappointment. I would have liked more than 15 goals and 30 points, but he still provided a lot of what was missing from this team, especially after the trade deadline. Donato is a bottom-six player and was used correctly this season. He used his elevated role to land a nice contract, which was awesome, but how he was used this season is what to expect from him. He gets a C+.

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