Armchair Hockey Scout Beta

This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

8

Ryan Donato

Chicago Blackhawks Center

31 goals on a 17 per cent rate at 28, after never scoring more than 20.

SeasonTeamGPGAPTS+/-PIMPPSHGWSS%TOI
2017-18BOS12549+222002420.814:42
2018-19BOS/MIN56101525-1563011397.213:42
2019-20MIN6214923+5120019514.710:38
2020-21SJS5061420-11102011045.812:36
2021-22SEA74161531-134010215910.113:48
2022-23SEA71141327+164600012211.511:15
2023-24CHI78121830-14261001498.114:00
2024-25CHI80313162-154150318217.016:19
2025-26 so far
Career483108119227-45183140897411.113:21

This Season So Far

The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

31 goals and 31 assists in 80 games for 62 points, minus-15, on 16:19 a night and 182 shots.

17 per cent shooting, against a career rate under 12, in his eighth NHL season. 43.8 per cent chance share, the 9th percentile, with on-ice goals of 31-58 against an expected 37-47 — outscored by 27 on a line that created less than it allowed.

The Finesse Game

A genuinely quick release and better hands than a journeyman’s reputation suggests. 37 per cent of his attempts came from inside 20 feet, which supports a rate above his career mark; it does not support 17 per cent.

31 assists is also a career high and it came largely from playing beside Connor Bedard. The distinction that matters is between a player who found a role and a player who found a linemate, and the evidence leans toward the second.

The Physical Game

6 feet and 190, and he is honest without being heavy. He goes to the net, takes some punishment, and does not win pucks on the wall.

41 penalty minutes over 80 games is a moderate rate. The durability has been fine.

The Intangibles

A second-round pick, six organisations, a father who played, and a career of being a useful thirteenth forward until a contract year on the first line of a last-place club.

The club has paid him as a scorer. The honest projection is 18 goals, and the gap between that and 31 is the largest single bet in this chapter.

The numbers underneath

On the ice

Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,035 minutes

Expected goals
43.8%
10th pct

share of the chances while he was out there

Shot attempts
44.6%
10th pct

share of the attempts while he was out there

Goals while he was on the ice: 31 for, 58 against. Expected: 36.5 and 46.9.

The eye and the numbers

Hindsight
Report
58th
Numbers
10th

The report ranks him 48 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.

Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.

Usual linemates

2024-25 · 1035 minutes at five-on-five

Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.

Why the numbers land there

Five-on-five, 2024-25

The club
CHI took 43.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 43.8% — 0.6 above the club he did it on.
The role
First line, 1,035 minutes at five-on-five — 66th percentile in ice time.

With and without

TeammateTogetherHim apartMate apart
Connor Bedard42.3%44.8%40.6%
Alex Vlasic41.1%45.4%42.2%
Connor Murphy50.6%41.1%43.3%

42.3% together, 44.8% for him apart and 40.6% for Bedard apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.

Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.

Where he shoots from

goal on goal missed

260 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 32 of them goals. His median goal came from 14 feet. 37% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 15% from beyond forty.