Considering the Blackhawks’ stylistic emphasis on team-wide speed, figuring out where to slot the sometimes sluggish Ryan Donato into the lineup was a challenge for coach Luke Richardson last season.
Richardson didn’t withhold his thoughts on Donato’s lack of speed, either.
“Skating 100 or 200 feet really is not the strong suit of his game,” Richardson said on New Year’s Day, for example. “He’s in the NHL [where] everybody can skate, but his pace is not at the level of a first-line player. So we put him there at times, but for sustained ability, he’s a utility guy.”
Donato presumably read that criticism, heard it directly from the coaching staff and noticed its impact on his playing time, which dropped from 14:47 per game through Jan. 11 to 13:10 per game after that date.
Thus, he focused his training this summer on his skating, making some technical adjustments to his feet and knee positions that he believes will increase his explosiveness and overall quickness.
“I’ve definitely worked on the explosiveness [before]; I just took it to a different level, because it was very important to me to gain a step this summer and do some different things with my stride,” Donato said. “To the naked eye, it could look the same, but to me, it feels different.”
Demonstrating that improvement to Richardson could mean the difference between earning a role in the Hawk’s opening-night lineup and falling into healthy-scratch territory.
Indeed, Donato is one of two forwards who occupied substantial roles on the Hawks during the past year or two — Andreas Athanasiou being the other — whose roles look much less certain this year.
Their performances during the remainder of training camp will be crucial. Donato played well in the preseason opener Wednesday — as part of what was the Hawks’ most effective line alongside A.J. Spellacy and Craig Smith — whereas Athanasiou hasn’t made his preseason debut yet.
Further complicating matters for Donato is the fact his wife, Bradley, is due with their first child any day now — a thrilling moment in his personal life that could temporarily pull him away from camp.
“It’s the NHL, right?” Donato said. “Everybody’s job is up for grabs, always. It’s a tough league; there’s a lot of good hockey players. I’m just being competitive and keeping a good mindset, making sure I’m not getting too high or too low.”
Said Richardson: “Everybody’s going to battle for ice time this year. That’s the good thing for us coaches: we’re out of the survival mode now.”
In Athanasiou’s case, he has been primarily deployed so far as the fourth-line center between grinders like Smith and Pat Maroon — a strange spot for a speedster like him, since he is very much not a grinder.
The good news is he looks as fast as ever on the ice, a sign that he’s fully healthy again after missing most of last season with — and being hampered by once he returned — a groin- and hip-related injury on his right side. In terms of alignment with the Hawks’ speed emphasis, Athanasiou is far better situated than Donato.
“[Athanasiou] spent a lot of time here this summer, working on his body and his conditioning, and he looks like he’s in great shape,” Richardson said. “Now it’s just [about getting] him confident and using that speed.”
Athanasiou’s dilemma is that his style makes more sense as a top-six than a bottom-six forward, but now that Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen are around and Taylor Hall is healthy, bottom-six spots might be the only things available. Donato, conversely, actually found a groove late last season on the fourth line, recording 15 points and a plus-four rating over his final 24 appearances.
The Hawks have roughly 10 days left to figure out where to put each of them to start 2024-25.