Blackhawks' Ryan Donato adds another chapter to memorable season with first hat trick

New York Times

29-03-2025

CHICAGO — There have to be teams around the NHL kicking themselves that they didn't offer the Blackhawks a first-round pick for Ryan Donato.
Donato continued taking his career season to another level Friday as he scored his first career hat trick that put him on the cusp of his first 30-goal season. That it happened in a 5-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights ruined for Donato would have been a truly magical night.
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Instead, his mind was stuck on the turnover he committed to allow the Golden Knights an empty net goal to ensure a Blackhawks loss.
'Like I said, I'll be thinking about that tonight rather than the hat trick,' Donato said. 'I'll be thinking about it all night.'
Donato may not be able to separate individual successes from team disappointments, but we can. In a season where the Blackhawks haven't had many things to celebrate, Donato has been arguably their best and most consistent player. Whether his career season is a one-off or the start of a new trend will be told over the coming years, but it's been a storybook season for him as he has 28 goals, 12 more than his previous best.
Donato opened his scoring Friday with a breakaway goal in the first period. Ethan Del Mastro fed him a stretch pass. Donato had his first attempt denied, but the puck bounced back to him and he finished the second attempt.
His next two goals came within 15 seconds of each other. The Blackhawks had an extra skater on the ice with Vegas having a delayed penalty. After some sustained offensive zone time, Joe Veleno fed Donato in the left circle, Donato received the pass, moved up in the circle and found the upper right corner of the net.
Donato stayed on the ice for the faceoff. The Blackhawks got the puck and pushed it up ice on a rush. Connor Bedard slid a pass to Ilya Mikheyev into the left circle through a defender. Looking at a two-on-one situation with Donato setting up on his right, Mikheyev approached the net, swung the puck to Donato and Donato connected on a one-timer and scored again. The force of Donato's swing sent him to the ice. His teammates rushed to hug him as the hats began to fill the United Center ice.
'I didn't even have time to really think about it, to be honest with you,' Donato said. 'Usually, you know, I've had two (goals) a couple times, and you have time to sit after and think about, 'Oh gosh.' … You're thinking about the third. And this time, I really didn't have time to think about it because we were right back out there. And then once it went in, I was relieved, obviously. It felt very, you know, it was a great experience and felt blessed. But like I said, doesn't matter if you don't win.'
Donato is sitting on a three-year, $4 million contract offer from the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks are hopeful that Donato recognizes the opportunity he's getting with them in a top-six role, and the top power-play unit likely wouldn't be handed to him on most teams, especially Stanley Cup contenders.
The one team that could intrigue Donato if he hits free agency is the Boston Bruins. He grew up in the area. The Bruins have fallen off this season, but they still have some pieces.
The result didn't go the Blackhawks' way, but there were a lot more positives than negatives for the Blackhawks.
The line of Doanto-Bedard-Mikheyev was dominant. Donato had three goals at five-on-five. Mikheyev had two breakaways that he just couldn't put away. The line had an 83.3 expected goals percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick.
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The line of Teuvo Teräväinen, Frank Nazar and Tyler Bertuzzi had its share of quality chances. Nazar had two breakaways, which he also didn't finish on. That line had a 55.44 expected goals percentage.
'I thought both of those lines were good,' Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sörensen said. 'Frankie had two breakaways, Mikkey had two breakaways. Obviously, Dono had the hat trick, but they created against a real good defensive team, and I thought they were responsible defensively as well. Nazar playing head-to-head with Jack Eichel all night did a good job defensively as well.'
Wyatt Kaiser was noticeable all night. He was aggressive, won pucks, moved pucks. Del Mastro and Kevin Korchinski had a few breakdowns that allowed Vegas to score on odd-man rushes, but overall the young defense was solid against a better team.
'There were a lot of positives,' Sörensen said. 'There were a lot of positives. It just leaves a sour taste in your mouth when you come out of here with zero points. You can look at a lot of stuff. We created offensively against a really good defensive team, that's a positive, but also the young blue line held it in against a really good rush team, held their own. There were a lot of positives for sure.'
Bedard has been playing at a slower pace this season, according to the NHL's EDGE data.
Last season, Bedard had 102 bursts of more than 20 miles per hour, according to EDGE. He was in the 74th percentile and well above the league average of 73.2 bursts.
This season, he's had 64 speed bursts of over 20 miles per hour. That puts him in the 53rd percentile and below the league average of 70.3 bursts.
Sörensen thought it was possible that Bedard playing on the wing rather than center has slowed him down.
'It could be,' Sörensen said. 'Like I said earlier, we want him in motion more, getting those pucks in. When you're center, you're in the middle of the ice more. You don't have to do that stuff on the yellow as much. I think hopefully that will loosen him up, get him more speed. Sometimes on the wing, you can say the same thing, it's easier, you can push out and whatnot. We've had a hard time as a group getting pucks up the ice. When the wingers are getting stuck on the walls, that kind of eliminates that part of it. So now moving him to the middle, hopefully more pace through the middle and supporting his game that way.'
Sörensen chose to separate Bedard and Nazar on Friday and put them each at center.
The Blackhawks were hoping for answers from prospects Oliver Moore and Sam Rinzel on Friday night or sometime Saturday on whether they'll turn pro or return to Minnesota for their junior seasons.
Their Minnesota teammate, Jimmy Snuggerud, signed with the St. Louis Blues on Friday, but that was expected with Snuggerud being a junior.
Ryan Greene, another Blackhawks prospect who could turn pro after his college season, will be back in action with Boston University on Saturday in an NCAA tournament quarterfinal.
Pat Maroon may have had to retire on the spot if he had pulled this off. He was close.
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