Garnet Hathaway is probably the best defensive forward on the Caps, and he’s super under-appreciated for it. Probably because of the spitting thing.
By the Numbers
| 66 | games played |
| 10.8 | time on ice per game |
| 9 | goals |
| 7 | assists |
| 53.8 | 5-on-5 shot-attempt percentage, adjusted |
| 57.5 | 5-on-5 expected goal percentage, adjusted |
| 54.3 | 5-on-5 goal percentage, adjusted |
Visualization by HockeyViz
About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows lots of information for the player over the season. A short description of each chart:
- Most common teammates during 5-on-5
- Ice time per game, split up by game state
- 5-on-5 adjusted shot attempts by the team (black) and opponents (red)
- 5-on-5 adjusted shooting percentage by the team (black) and opponents (red)
- Individual scoring events by the player
- 5-on-5 adjusted offensive (black) and defensive (red) zone starts
Peter’s Take
With a depth player who is not depended on to score, it can sometimes be hard to quantify his contribution. Except with Hathaway, it’s not too tough. Below is a table of Hathaway’s most common on-ice partners, the percentage of shot attempts and expected goals possessed by the Caps when they’re on the ice, and how much better (or worse) that partner fares when with Hathaway.
Aside from infrequent minutes with Lars Eller, Hathaway has been a clearly positive influence on his teammates. His most common partner is Nic Dowd, with whom he has tremendous chemistry. The figure below from Hockey Viz tells that story as well. I’ve circled the good bits. At top right — the good quadrant — are players (in black) who do much better with Hathaway then they do without (circled at bottom left, in red).
That’s Nic Dowd and someone else whose name I cannot recall. Not important right now.
So how is Hathaway doing it? It’s not entirely clear. He isn’t carrying the puck much, he shoots more than Dowd but not much more. He’s not flashy in the offensive zone, he’s not a playmaker in the typical sense. He’s just really, really reliable in his own end. He’s arguably the best defensive forward on the team, keeping shots to the outside extremely well. Here’s opponent shots in a heatmap from Hockey Viz.
The big blue blob in front of the Washington net means other teams aren’t shooting from there much. That plus great special teams at $1.5 million through 2023 sounds excellent to me. Just, uh, no more spitting. It really bothers Ian.
Garny on RMNB
- The Caps signed Hathaway from free agency in July 2019.
- Okay let’s just do spit-game here. Erik Gudbranson suckerpunched Hathaway, so Hathaway spit on Gudbranson. Hathaway got a match penalty, regretted it, and got suspended.
- Hathaway on the suspension for spitting: “Tough to swallow.” I am not making this up.
- Gudbranson on Hathaway’s spitting: “As low as you can get.” We decided he was wrong.
- Other players talked a lot.
- Aaaaand now he’s the team’s King Clancy nominee, as “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”
- Hathaway did an interview with a, um, slightly broken nose.
- We actually covered normal hockey stuff too. Hathaway really started to click around midseason, and got super hot in December in particular. He and Dowd were great together, on-ice and off.
- Here’s one of my favorite stories of the entire season.
- Thank you, Garny, for giving Mike Green back to us, if only for a moment.
Your Turn
What do you see in Hathaway’s game that makes him so effective? What would you like to see him add?
Read more: Japers Rink
