VOORHEES, N.J. — Phone calls from the Philadelphia Flyers’ training facility in South Jersey to Lehigh Valley have presumably been less frequent than usual. The rosters of both the AHL Phantoms and their parent club have been generally static lately, with only depth forward Olle Lycksell and goalie Cal Petersen switching jerseys over the last six weeks.
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Even when Tyson Foerster left Wells Fargo Center in a walking boot Feb. 10 following a game with Seattle in which the rookie blocked a shot with his foot in the closing seconds, general manager Danny Briere kept his phone in his pocket. Coach John Tortorella’s desire to play 11 forwards and seven defensemen is certainly part of the reason why, but so, too, is his comfort level with Garnet Hathaway.
After playing most of the first half of the season on the fourth line, Hathaway has lately been playing up in the lineup in a top-nine role, and his line with Ryan Poehling and Noah Cates has given the team some good minutes (Cates’ reduced ice time for most of the third period Saturday aside). Headed into Wednesday’s game with Chicago, the line has an impressive 87.0 expected goals share per Natural Stat Trick, with a 46-20 edge in shot attempts at five-on-five.
On Thursday in the third period in Toronto, Hathaway scored a key goal, finding the rebound of a point shot by Nick Seeler after good work along the wall by Poehling and Cates. That made it a 3-2 game; Travis Konecny tied it on the power play a minute later before the Flyers fell in overtime.
Hathaway still leads the Flyers, and is third in the league, with 193 hits. There aren’t many nights when he isn’t noticeable — including the 6-3 loss to the Devils at MetLife Stadium. He didn’t get on the score sheet but tied for a team high with five hits, had a plus-1 rating and was in the middle of multiple scrums — including midway through the second period when he charged in on net with Nic Deslauriers hoping for a loose puck, knocked over defenseman Brendan Smith, then got Curtis Lazar in a headlock with one hand while grabbing power forward Timo Meier with the other. Meier did his best to wriggle free of Hathaway’s grasp, resembling a fish that had just been pulled from the sea.
There hasn’t been much offense from Hathaway with just three goals and eight points in 56 games, so his staying in the top nine might not be ideal. When Foerster is ready — he’s taken part in the last two practices and looks as if he could play as soon as Saturday against the New York Rangers — Hathaway could go back to the fourth line, as long as everyone else is healthy.
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Still, he’ll undoubtedly remain in as a key penalty killer for the league’s second-ranked unit. How valuable has he been to that group? In 81 minutes, Hathaway has been on the ice for five power-play goals against and four Flyers short-handed goals. Put another way, that’s remarkably just a minus-1 rating in what equates to more than four full periods on the kill.
Hathaway and Tortorella are pleased with how it’s gone so far after the Flyers inked him to a two-year, $4.75 million contract in the offseason.
“I’ve watched him play for years. When (Briere) talked to me about him, I was very interested in what he brings,” Tortorella said. “Hope we get a little bit more offense as we go through the last quarter here, but a good teammate, a good soldier, plays hard, kills penalties. … He’s a really good guy (to have) in trying to build a standard.”
Hathaway said: “I spoke to (Tortorella) before I signed and got his honest opinion of this organization, guys in this room and his expectations and what he asks of his players. That’s something that I wanted. It didn’t sound easy, by any means. Just by that, you know the guys in this room, that they picked to have in this room and that wanted to be here, did it for that reason. They want to go through that challenge (and get) better. It’s putting the hard work in.”
And Hathaway won’t ever be labeled as a guy who doesn’t work hard. It’s allowed him to play more than 500 NHL games and also made him a target of top teams over the years looking to add depth and nastiness.
The Washington Capitals, coming off a first-place season, signed him as a free agent in the summer of 2019 to a four-year, $6 million deal, and last season, in the final year of that contract, it was the league-leading Boston Bruins that acquired him from Washington just before the trade deadline.
“One thing I take a lot of pride in is trying to be consistent with my game,” Hathaway said. “That physical presence, that energy, that hard-nosed play — I think the consistency is the key, though.”
Hathaway’s presence has also allowed the Flyers to not have to bring anyone up from the Phantoms who might not be ready and risk stunting their development. That means guys like Bobby Brink, who was reassigned to the Phantoms on Jan. 22, and Samu Tuomaala, who left a good impression on team brass in training camp, can concentrate on honing their skills in the AHL. Brink has three goals and six points in eight games since he’s been reassigned, while Tuomaala has 13 goals and 36 points in 43 games.
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Phantoms coach Ian Laperriere has been pleased with Brink but also indicated the 22-year-old can have more of an impact.
“His mindset has been great. He came in with a big smile on his face, he knows he’s playing big minutes and he’s going to be playing big minutes,” Laperriere said. “His game has been all right. First two or three games he dominated, especially on the power play, but he needs to be a little bit better five-on-five. That’s my message to him, and he knows. It’s not like he’s not playing well, it’s just like a player like that with that amount of skill that he has needs to elevate his game and help us a little more five-on-five. Attitude-wise, he’s been amazing.”
Tuomaala, 21, is still making his way through his first full professional North American season, having played just 44 games in Finland last season.
“Right now, it’s almost new territory for him,” Laperriere said. “He’s never played more than 40 games in a season, and he’s never played against men — a physical game like we have in North America. So right now, he needs to battle through it like a lot of those young guys, and that’s what he’s doing. It’s a little bit tougher this time of year to get points like he was earlier in the year.”
At this stage, with 26 games left, it’s likely the Flyers will stick with the players who have gotten them to this point, as they still sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division. That means guys like Hathaway, who has been through these types of situations before, will continue to be leaned on. And the youngsters who might be more skilled but need more time to hone those skills can continue to marinate in the minors.
Hathaway is prepared, and enthusiastic, for the stretch run and potential playoff games with his Flyers teammates.
“Teams that they go into the playoffs and they’re playing really good hockey, they always say, they’ve been playing playoff hockey for a month,” Hathaway said. “It’s that intensity, it’s that grind, it’s that passion that goes into those games. It’s the guys banding together knowing that there’s only one way to get in — playing the right way, playing the hard way. It’s fun. And this is a team that’s prepared for it.”
(Photo of Garnet Hathaway: Kyle Ross / USA Today)
