Washington Capitals: Handing out 2021 player awards

Community Award: Garnet Hathaway

This award goes to the best player who did a lot for the DMV community. The player who best exemplified that was Washington’s King Clancy Trophy nominee Garnet Hathaway. The trophy is awarded annually to the player “who best exemplifies leadership qualities both on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

Garnet and his wife Lindsay launched Hath’s Heroes back in 2019 to give back to first responders. Over the holidays, Hath’s HEroes donated more than 900 meals to DC area first responders. In the spring of 2020 in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hath’s Heroes program provided 3,962 meals to first responder and families affiliated with local non profits Kid Power and DC Central Kitchen.

Best Interviewer of 2021: T.J. Oshie

In the past this award has been given to Evgeny Kuznetsov. Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of Kuzy sound bites this past season with no locker room access, Zooms only, and unavailability on Kuznetsov’s part. What we did get was some good sound bites from the other Zoom meetings especially from T.J. Oshie.

When the season began the hot mic caught him humming along to Pitbull’s Hotel Room Service. When he was fielding questions from the media, the smiling, always positive Oshie always told it like it is, the way a true leader is supposed to be.

When Oshie’s exit interview came, he clearly stated his intentions to finish his career with the Capitals. Hopefully the team decides to protect him in the upcoming expansion draft. Those are our 2021 player awards. Do you agree with our list? Which players and/or categories did we miss? Let us know in the comments.