Flyers’ Garnet Hathaway took a roundabout route to the NHL

CALGARY — Garnet Hathaway’s origin story is summed up in a story he was told by Craig Conroy.

The Calgary Flames general manager was a special assistant during the Flyers forward’s senior year at Brown and went to see him play. But the rugged Maine kid got kicked out for hitting a guy — Hathaway still thinks it was a clean hit, by the way — so Conroy had to come back the next day.

It was good that he did because after the season Hathaway was signed to an AHL deal with the Flames’ affiliate, the Abbotsford Heat.

“I think they saw something in me that made me want to become the player [I could be] even more and just give me a little confidence, inspiration,” Hathaway said. “I thought being drafted was the be-all, end-all, and for any kid who is thinking that right now too, it’s not. There’s so many different paths to get to the NHL.”

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Hathaway’s path went a “roundabout way” but he wouldn’t change a thing. He played four seasons at Brown and attended development camps with the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins between his junior and senior years. He played eight games at the end of the 2013-14 season in Abbotsford and notched 36 points (19 goals, 17 assists) in 72 games the next season when the team became the Adirondack Flames.

“He was one of the hardest working guys I’ve seen,” said Flames coach Ryan Huska, who was Hathaway’s bench boss in Adirondack and then Stockton. “So if you look at players that kind of willed themselves to the NHL, he’s an example of where maybe the skill set wasn’t the greatest, but when we had him in the minors, he found a way to generate a lot by just being a hardworking guy.”

Hathaway thanks Huska every time he sees him. He credits the Flames coach for helping him reach his end goal of the NHL by giving him the coaching he needed to improve and reach a potential that he didn’t know he even had. Thanks to that year with Adirondack in Glens Falls, N.Y., Hathaway was signed to an entry-level contract by then-general manager Brad Treliving.

“When he came in the league, he had that work ethic and played a lot of speed and was hard on pucks. So you could tell early on that he could potentially be a player up here,” said Flames captain Mikael Backlund before adding: ”He’s easygoing, I find, and just a happy person, excited to be at the rink, easy to be around, brings a lot of energy.”

Hathaway put the Flaming C on for 175 games, with his first NHL game actually coming at the Wells Fargo Center. When he hits the ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Sunday, he’ll look up at the retired numbers, the 1989 Stanley Cup banner, and then out into the C of Red. For him, the passion the fans in Cowtown bring to the Dome is what made his time with the organization special. That and a very specific goal.

”The playoffs my last year [in 2019], Andrew Mangiapane’s goal, and you know just pure excitement,” Hathaway recalled. “My first time [experiencing] playoff hockey in the NHL and having it in front of those fans. It was — I just got excited thinking about it.”

The dandy goal scored by Mangiapane in Game 1 of the Western Conference first round against the Colorado Avalanche was created after Hathaway threw a check along the boards, creating a turnover.

“You see his hard work in that goal, too, right?” Mangiapane said. “I can’t say it enough. He’s a great person and he helped me a lot just kind of throughout the whole kind of first little bit of my career. He mentored me and guided me a little bit there and, yeah, he’s a great person.”

Hathaway is now a spark plug for the Flyers. Playing a key role on the fourth line and the “power kill,” he has five points (four goals, one assist) in 35 games, including a key shorthanded goal he scored against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

“I think Garney just brings that effort part of it to his game and I think he’s an easy guy to follow as far as the puck battles, the board work, the physical play, the willingness,” coach John Tortorella said. “Everything about him is, I think you talk about the Flyers history, it’s kind of that, bringing that type of style to the league. I know the league’s changed but we, meaning us the Flyers in that room, feel there’s a part of the physical play that needs to be there for us. And he certainly is one of those guys that leads the way in that.”