The Philadelphia Flyers have finally got in the chaos of what has been the NHL trade market this week. And it’s sending veteran forward Garnet Hathaway to the Florida Panthers in a deal that involves multiple draft picks.
Announced by the team on Thursday morning, the Flyers have sent Garnet Hathaway to the Panthers, along with their 2026 sixth-round pick, in exchange for a 2026 fifth-round pick, and a 2027 fourth-round pick. The Flyers are also retaining 50% of Hathaway’s salary.
Hathaway is heading into the final year of his two-year contract extension that he signed with the Flyers, which comes in at a $2.4-million AAV. So, with the 50% retention, there will be $1.2 million of dead money on Philadelphia’s cap — which for now is the only salary retained from the Flyers. Using one of the three available retention spots to make this deal work isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Hathaway signed with the Flyers as an unrestricted free agent in 2023 to solidify their depth and did exactly that. For the vast majority of his three seasons in Philadelphia, the veteran winger was an above-average fourth-liner — it was really just this past season where the wheels started to fall off and he needed the adrenaline of playoff hockey and for Sean Couturier to be stapled to him on that line, to regain some value.
In the 215 games he played for the Flyers, Hathaway scored 18 goals and 41 points while averaging 11:39 time-on-ice.
Flyers offload Garnet Hathaway to the Panthers for some good draft picks
The Flyers don’t get to add a pick for this weekend’s 2026 NHL Draft, but they do move up one round, from the sixth to the fifth, and then get to add a future fourth-round pick in the process. It is an extremely tidy piece of business by Flyers general manager Danny Briere to increase some draft pick value for a player who was largely not seen as a positive-value player for the majority of last season.
For the Panthers, this is simply the replacement of A.J. Greer as the depth winger heads to his own unrestricted free agency to try and cash in after scoring a career-high 17 goals. Florida could no longer afford him and went for the cheaper option that has a lower ceiling, but considering who they have as their top-nine forwards, they can certainly handle a veteran like Hathaway playing more of a grinding role than Greer just did.
It’s basically a trade that works out for both sides — Florida doesn’t particularly care about nailing some late-round draft picks, and the Flyers free up a roster spot while getting to punch in some more lottery tickets on some prospects.
Because now, this really opens up the Flyers to maybe changing up their depth forwards a little bit. There have been reports of the Flyers re-signing elderly center Luke Glendening to a new contract after claiming him off of waivers at last season’s trade deadline. Add in Sean Couturier, who will most likely return to his fourth-line center role, and then a player like Nikita Grebenkin returning from injury, and there’s your projected fourth line.
Glendening provides a little bit more value than Hathaway since he’s a natural right-handed center and can do just about everything else that the newest Florida Panther can do on the forecheck if he’s on the wing.
Or, maybe the Flyers do a pseudo swap and sign Greer in free agency to provide some more scoring oomf to that bottom line and maybe don’t even bother re-signing Glendening.
There are now paths that the Flyers can take with this spot opened up — it at least gives us some more to talk about.
