CHICAGO -- Ryan Donato is tempering his excitement for the Discover NHL Winter Classic.
Don’t get the Chicago Blackhawks forward wrong. He would love to assume he’ll make his NHL outdoor game debut when the Blackhawks play the St. Louis Blues at Wrigley Field on Dec. 31 (5 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS). He’s been on three other teams when they were selected to play in the Winter Classic. As a rookie, he came as close as possible to playing in one. But he hasn’t.
“My family’s excited. I have a lot of people coming in for it and it’s definitely something to look forward to and for me now, it’s just taking one step at a time,” Donato said recently. “There are [a few] games before we get there, so you’re excited for it but you can’t get too excited for it. You never know what can happen. You can get injured; a lot of things can happen.”
Sure, but if Donato’s healthy, there’s no doubt he will be playing for the Blackhawks. He leads them with 11 goals in 33 games, five shy of the career-high 16 he scored with the Seattle Kraken in 2021-22. He is third on the Blackhawks with 20 points (11 goals, nine assists), more than halfway to the career-high 31 points he also had in 2021-22. He also has two game-winning goals this season.
“He’s gotten into his game, and he knows what it takes for him to get ready and he’s brought that every game,” Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno said. “You can’t say there are many nights he’s had off. He’s been a real positive for us all year long.”
For a rebuilding team that emphasizes a strong work ethic, Donato is a great example.
“He’s like a dog on a bone constantly and it’s great,” Chicago interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “The work ethic part and the compete level has put him in those situations where he’s been able to score big goals or be part of big goals for us the last couple of games. That’s his trademark, right?”
Selected by his hometown Boston Bruins in the second round (No. 56) of the 2014 NHL Draft, the 28-year-old has 184 points (88 goals, 96 assists) in 435 games with the Bruins, Minnesota Wild, San Jose Sharks, Kraken and Blackhawks, and two assists in 19 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Yet the Winter Classic has been elusive.
Donato was a healthy scratch for the Bruins when they played the Blackhawks in the 2019 Winter Classic at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He was traded by the Minnesota Wild in 2020 before he could play for them in the 2022 game at Target Field in Minneapolis (it had been postponed from the previous season due to COVID-19).
The Kraken were awarded the 2024 Winter Classic in 2022-23, Donato’s second season with them. He signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the Blackhawks on July 1, 2023, so he didn’t play for Seattle when it hosted the Vegas Golden Knights.
“I got to wear the jersey, got to do all that stuff,” Donato said of the Kraken’s Winter Classic gear. “It’s tough. I mean, you get excited, it’s like a big moment with your buddies that you talk about and look forward to.”
The most disappointing for Donato, however, was with Boston. He was in the lineup as the Winter Classic approached on Jan. 1, 2019. He had one of his best games of the season on Dec. 23, 2018, when he scored two goals in a 5-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, but he was scratched on New Year’s Day.
“I did the warmups, I did all the skates for it, and I think I was playing really well leading up to it. Had a couple of goals [a few] games before. I wasn’t really expecting it, you know?”
It remains bittersweet for Donato because he was replaced in the lineup by one of his close friends, Colby Cave. A former center for the Bruins and Edmonton Oilers, Cave died on April 11, 2020, after suffering a brain bleed. He was 25.
“He was one of the most amazing people,” Donato said. “He was the one who got put in, so I was like, ‘If anybody’s going to go in, this guy was the guy that deserved it.’ At the time I was upset, but it wasn’t like I was upset at who was in. It was more because I couldn’t be a part of it.”
Donato has been waiting for a Winter Classic opportunity. He’s earned it this season with his play, and now it’s just a matter of it happening.
“As a baseball fan, for one, it’s cool,” Donato said. “I grew up a Red Sox fan (in Scituate, Massachusetts), but I know Wrigley’s an amazing stadium. Being able to watch a baseball game there is super cool. The city of Chicago always delivers when there’s a big moment -- (Stanley Cup) Playoffs, Winter Classic, those type of events. I’m excited for that. I want to experience that.”
