Early 2022 predictions for Garnet Hathaway

Today is the first day of Washington Capitals training camp and we’ve got one more player to give early predictions. Today we’ll look at Garnet Hathaway who’s become a big fan favorite as he enters his fourth season with the Caps.

Hathaway scored nine goals and seven assists for 16 points in his first season with the Caps. In his second he had six goals and 12 assists for 18 points in a pandemic shortened season.

There’s still unfortunately a pandemic but last season was Hathaway’s true first full season with no interruptions. He had his best season of his career with 14 goals and 12 assists for 26 points in 76 games and continued to be a key contributor on the fourth line.

Hathaway also had decent advanced stats last regular season. He had a Corsi For percentage of 51.58 percent, an Expected Goals For percentage of 51.50 percent, and a High Danger Chances For percentage of 53.31 percent via Natural Stat Trick.

The thing I love about Hathaway is how he’s been an X factor on the bottom six. And I think he’s going to step up in his physicality. Lots of teams are sleeping good right now knowing the Caps start the season without Tom Wilson. But Hathaway can pack a punch and he will cause problems this season for a lot of rivals. I’m talking about you Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.

So in predicting Hathaway I think he not only leads the team in hits but has another career season. He’ll score 15 goals and add 14 assists for 29 points. It would be another solid season for Hathaway.

Hathaway has a cap hit of $1.5 million and he enters this upcoming season as an unrestricted free agent. When you’re unrestricted you can sign with any team you want. After they extended his buddy Nic Dowd, I have no doubt Hathaway gets one too.