The Flyers really liked what they got out of Garnet Hathaway in his first season as they signed him to a two-year, $4.8 million contract extension Monday.
The north-south, hard-hitting winger was entering the final year of his two-year, $4.75 million contract. He's now under contract for the next three seasons, with his new deal starting in 2025-26 and having an average annual value of $2.4 million.
"Garnet has been a great addition to our team and we're very happy to extend him to be a Flyer for the next several seasons," Flyers general manager Danny Briere said in a statement released by the team. "His style of play and level of professionalism had a big effect on our group last season, and he embodies the standard our team set out to build both on and off the ice."
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Hathaway was one of four Flyers to play all 82 games last season. He chipped in 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) over 12:29 minutes per game and had the NHL's second-most hits with 326. The 32-year-old is also a key penalty killer for the Flyers, scoring one of the team's league-leading 16 shorthanded goals.
"A player like that, you're going into next year and you get to the trade deadline, and if the team's not doing well, now you're thinking, 'Are we trading him?'" Briere said Monday. "Now you've got to negotiate with him and all the teams start calling, [the AAV] can escalate in the [$3 million range]. We wanted to keep the cap hit [around] the same. When we saw that he was also willing to extend for pretty much the same cap hit, it got interesting for us."
Some may argue that a rebuilding team shouldn't commit too many years to an older role player. But Hathaway's role is an important one and the Flyers are still going to be a young group up front moving forward. They could have eight forwards 25 years old or younger in their 2024-25 season-opening lineup.
"When we heard last year, you heard me say it, other teams are telling us we're hard to play against, he's a big reason why," Briere said. "Coming into Philadelphia and having to face players like him, it's not fun."
Philadelphia Flyers
Hathaway has been a tone-setter for how the Flyers want to play and he stands up for his teammates, an important quality with many young forwards.
"That's what we've built on," Hathaway said in April, "that's what this organization has brought in to create a culture that plays for each other, that builds that team camaraderie."
The next question is will the Flyers avoid a contract year with Travis Konecny? The team's All-Star and leading scorer is entering the final year of his six-year, $33 million deal. He's in line for a pretty good raise from his $5.5 million average annual value and at his exit interview he sounded open to signing an extension.
"Nothing new," Briere said Monday on the Konecny front. "This is the first day that officially we could extend him. I've said from the beginning, I'm not going to negotiate through the media. But we love Travis and we hope he's here for a long time."
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