Blackhawks sign Ryan Donato to four-year extension

The Chicago Blackhawks have signed center Ryan Donato to a four-year contract extension with a $4 million cap hit, according to Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli.

Donato was in the final year of a two-year, $2 million contract this season, and was set to become an unrestricted free agency before the extension. He was ranked 20th on Seravalli’s free agent rankings, and was eighth among centers.

There’s currently no word on whether or not the deal comes with any signing or performance bonuses, as well as any no-trade or no-move clauses.

With the new contract, Donato not only gets the highest average annual value on a contract in his career, but gets double his previous highest mark at $2 million. The Blackhawks manage to lock him up until he’s 33 at 4.19% of their 2025-26 salary cap.

Donato was coming off of a career year alongside Connor Bedard, where he had 31 goals and 31 assists for 62 points in 80 games. Previously, he had never gotten more than 16 goals (which he set in 2021-22), 18 assists (set in 2023-24), and 31 points (also set in 2021-22).

Donato is the Blackhawks’ first big move of the offseason, as their only other move had been trading Victor Soderstrom to the Boston Bruins for Ryan Mast and a 2025 seventh round pick. They currently have over $25 million cap space to work with and no other free agents of note, with the most significant at this point being restricted free agent Arvid Soderblom. That said, they do need to start preparing for Connor Bedard’s next contract, as his entry-level deal will finish at the end of the 2025-26 season.

The Blackhawks will hope to start improving on their recent stretch of finishing in the basement, although it did earn them the third-overall pick in the upcoming draft. They finished the 2024-25 season with second-worst record in the league at 20-50-12.