For someone who’s looking to stay in Chicago, Ryan Donato sure dangled himself like trade bait during a 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.
With scouts from the Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Snarks and Senators in attendance at the United Center, did little to tamp down rumors that he’ll fetch competitive offers by Friday’s trade deadline.
The Hawks were down 1-0 in the first period when Donato took a nifty back pass from Landon Slaggert, maneuvered forehand-backhand around Sens goalie Linus Ullmark and banked the puck in off Ullmark’s skate.
Donato padded his team lead with his 23rd goal.
Late in the third he intercepted a pass in the Senators zone and had designs on his 24th goal, but Ullmark thwarted him.
But no one really sees him as a viable middle-six forward on a playoff contender, right?
After all, this has been an outlier season for the eight-year journeyman. Who’s willing to take the chance that it’s all a mirage — at the likely cost of a high-round pick?
We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.
The one blemish on his game was that he was on the ice for two Senators goals, though he only had a hand in David Perron’s, getting deked by Drake Batherson before his low-to-high pass to Perron.
Pat Maroon flipped the notion that Donato’s making himself more and more of a trade target.
“I think I’m going the other way with that, I think we should sign him, don’t you think?” Maroon said after the game. “It’s above my pay grade. … Obviously teams are talking, his name’s been in the media throughout the last couple weeks, and he’s earned that. But he’s also earned the right to make a decision where he wants to go, right?”
For what it’s worth, Donato, 28, has said multiple times that he’s adamant about remaining a Hawk.
Not only have Donato’s 23 goals eclipsed his previous career high of 16 (in 74 games in 2021-22), but his 23 assists through 60 games tops last year’s career best by five (in 78 games).
It was Donato’s third straight game with a goal — all in March — and his fourth in that span. Over the last week and a half, he has stacked six consecutive games with a point.
“It’s not just this past week,” Slaggert said, “it’s his mentality the past year that I’ve been able to know him. He’s a guy who’s been up and down the lineup. You can slot him in anywhere and he’s going to have success. It’s just awesome to see, because his process is better than anybody I’ve ever seen.”
Meanwhile, the game ended in a bit of controversy.
Senators forward Tim Stützle scored the overtime game-winner, but he ran into Hawks goalie Arvid Söderblom in the process and the puck went in off Stützle’s skate as he was sliding.
After a review, the referees ruled it a good goal.
Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said he didn’t receive an explanation.
“We thought it was goalie interference, but they called a good goal on the ice,” he said. “They looked at it and that was it.”
For context, Sorensen is 1-for-5 on challenges — 1-for-4 on interference calls in particular.
“Seems like we’ve been on the other side of those a lot this year,” Maroon said. “Seems like he (Stützle) drives him (Söderblom) back in the net, and the only reason he gets turned around is because he runs into the goalie, and unfortunately, it hits his skates and goes in. …
“We don’t know, those calls can go either way. And it seems like they’re not going our way this year for some reason.”
Maroon focused instead on the third-period rally, during which set up Craig Smith’s tying goal to send the game to overtime.
“I don’t know, I just dangled them and got the rebound back and saw Smithy in the slot,” Maroon said. “Nothing much to it.”
In a 2-2 first period, Teuvo Teräväinen added to Donato’s tally with a power-play goal.
“The boys played hard tonight,” Maroon said. “We battled back. We stuck in there.”
In some surprising news, Sorensen said Petr Mrázek is out of the goalie rotation for now, with the Hawks rolling with the hot hand between newcomer Spencer Knight and Söderblom.
“It’s tough when you have three,” Sorensen said. “You have to find some type of rotation. We feel Sody’s played well. Petr’s been good too throughout the year. But Spencer coming in, it’s tough to play three goalies.”
