The Washington Capitals have signed another depth forward to a multi-year deal, inking Garnet Hathaway to a four-year $6MM deal according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
It took quite a while for Hathaway to become an NHL regular after four years at Brown University. They 27-year-old finally become an NHL regular in the 2017-18 season, but took his game to another level this season, posting a career-high 11 goals and 19 points, while providing the necessary grit and grind while playing on Calgary’s fourth line. He also finished with a career-high 200 hits last season.
It’s that energy and physicality that prompted the Capitals to add the forward to their team. Washington had already agreed to a deal with Richard Panik to fill the third-line role that was vacated when they traded winger Andre Burakovsky to Colorado a couple of days ago. Now Hathaway should fill a need on their fourth line as he likely will supplant either Travis Boyd or Chandler Stephenson there. The bump up in pay shouldn’t hurt either as he made just $850K last season with the Flames.