How Garnet Hathaway Feels About Joining Bruins, Leaving Capitals

Garnet Hathaway was an enemy of the Bruins during the last four seasons while he was with the Capitals, but that changed Thursday night.

Boston acquired Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov from Washington in exchange for Craig Smith and draft picks.

Hathaway certainly will help bolster the bottom six and add some snarl it’s been missing. The forward is not afraid to stand up for his teammates and has played big minutes in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And even though he had been a thorn in the Bruins’ side, Hathaway is excited to join a locker room that’s as tight-knit as Boston’s.

“He’s disappointed to be leaving the boys but he’s excited to live out his childhood dream of playing for his hometown Bruins,” Hathaway’s agent, Matt Keator, told The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir. “He’s kinda made to be a Bruin because he plays the style that the fanbase loves.

“Basically the comments on Twitter have been, ‘I guess we have to go from hating Garnet Hathaway to loving him.’ “

Hathaway laid a questionable hit on Brad Marchand in January 2022 that knocked Marchand from the eventual 4-3 Bruins win. He also dropped the gloves with ex-Bruin Nick Ritchie in 2021.

But that’s all in the past now, and we’re sure fans can put it all behind them once he steps on the ice and makes his presence known.

Hathaway and Orlov are expected to fly to Vancouver to join the Bruins on Friday, but it’s unclear if they will be in the lineup come Saturday when they take on the Canucks.