Bigger leadership role with the Flyers was enticing for Garnet Hathaway

Garnet Hathaway just wrapped up half a season with the Boston Bruins, a team that won more regular-season games in a single season (65) than anybody in NHL history. Before that, he played for another perennial playoff team in the Washington Capitals.

He has 457 NHL games of experience over eight seasons with three competitive teams (the Calgary Flames being the other). And yet on July 1, he elected to sign with the Flyers, who have finished in the bottom 10 in the league the past two seasons.

Even Flyers general manager Danny Brière was surprised by the call, having assumed Hathaway was going with another team. But Hathaway was drawn in by the organization’s desire to improve.

“It’s [a team] that wants to continue to get better and be a lot more competitive than they were last year,” Hathaway said via a media availability session on Zoom on Tuesday. “And so that’s exciting with a group that is willing to put in the work to do that and being a big part of it, as well.”

Hathaway didn’t want to call it a rebuild, although Brière has labeled it just that, but he said he looks forward to sharing his experience with younger players. On a rebuilding team, the 31-year-old Hathaway is sliding into a more veteran role than he has had on his previous teams. Only four forwards — Cam Atkinson, Sean Couturier, Nicolas Deslauriers and Scott Laughton — are close to his age.

The winger said he has picked up things from his past stops, whether it be on the ice or in the locker room, and he’s excited to share what he has learned.

“Probably haven’t had a prominent talking role in a room, a bit more of a listener,” Hathaway said. “But that’s something that I think that this opportunity will really be in front of me.”

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The 6-foot-3, 208-pound Hathaway said he prides himself on being “difficult to play against,” which aligns with what the Flyers want to do to make themselves more competitive. In previous years, they did so by adding Deslauriers, a feared enforcer, to play on the fourth line, and Rasmus Ristolainen, one of the hardest-hitting defensemen in the league. Hathaway has had as many assix fights in a season and plays an in-your-face, physical game.

The Maine native hopes Flyers fans are excited about his style of play, as well as the consistency he tries to bring to the rink each day.

In addition to bringing an element of toughness, Hathaway has also averaged more than 10 goals a year over his last five seasons. Last season, he registered nine goals and seven assists in 59 games with the Capitals and four goals and two assists in 25 games after being traded to the Bruins.

While Hathaway doesn’t know many players currently on the Flyers roster, he reached out to players who have played for the Flyers or for coach John Tortorella in the past.

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“[I was] trying to get more of a gauge of how they liked every part of the city, the organization, the training facilities, really everything,” Hathaway said. “And I heard unbelievable things.”

When asking about Tortorella, specifically, Hathaway heard he was an honest coach who demands your best. That aligns with what Hathaway thinks the Flyers need to be successful, and he believes that if you’re willing to put in the work to achieve a goal, it makes everything worth it.

The players he talked to left him with one other piece of advice.

“Get ready for camp.”