For the first time in a while, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet is changing up the lineup and instead of putting some lines in a blender or making some weird addition that feels a little awkward, he’s putting back in a veteran winger who has had such a horrible season that he somewhat surprisingly has been out of the lineup for weeks.
Garnet Hathaway has had a bad season. Almost every single person, including himself, would recognize that the 34-year-old has rapidly declined to where he is almost unrecognizable compared to the efficient fourth-line veteran forward that we would happily clone and take three of to solidify the Flyers’ depth. Hathaway has just been not good — and it’s not just the fact that he has zero points through 33 games, but in most areas of the game he has been well below expectation. Looking slow, not active enough to win puck battles, not as physical as he once was; Hathaway clearly was not having a positive impact on the game.
So, even after months of deserving to sit, Tocchet finally put him up in the press box and formed a fourth line of Carl Grundstrom and Nikita Grebenkin flanking Rodrigo Abols. A little bit of scoring touch mixed with physicality and a higher pace than however they were playing with Hathaway on the ice. And the production was immediate.
In the six games that Hathaway has been up in the press box for, the fourth line has outscored opponents 4-2 and all four goals have been scored by Carl Grundstrom. They aren’t necessarily lighting the world on fire since the underlyings still go to the opposition, such as that most recent fourth line having just 44.94 percent of the shot attempt share while on the ice, but it is still much better than the impact they had on the game when Hathaway was in the lineup.
So, after an embarrassing loss to one of the NHL’s worst teams in the Calgary Flames, Tocchet is switching things up and in comes Hathaway to play his first game since Dec. 18. Oh, and it’s against Connor McDavid and the Oilers in Edmonton.
Garnet Hathaway returns to the Flyers lineup after several healthy scratches
At Flyers practice on Friday, ahead of the Saturday matinee matchup against the Oilers, the lines were revealed and Hathaway was put back in rotation and out comes Grebenkin. The young Russian winger was already the victim to Tocchet deciding to ice Nic Deslauriers for a stretch of time, so this is not unfamiliar ground for Grebenkin. But, that’s all the changes that Tocchet makes to the forward lines.
Hello from Edmonton.#Flyers lines at practice
Zegras-Dvorak-Konecny
Barkey-Couturier-Tippett
Michkov-Cates-Brink
Grundström-Ābols-Hathaway
GrebenkinYork-Sanheim
Andrae-Drysdale
Seeler-Ristolainen
Deslauriers-JuulsenVladar (looks like he’s in the starters net)
Ersson pic.twitter.com/MfXV6Iq9ef— Jackie Spiegel (@jackiespiegel93) January 2, 2026
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It’s not extremely offensive or a disaster to have Hathaway back in the lineup. Veterans cycle in even if they are in most inconsequential 13th forward of all time, so having Hathaway pop in after a demoralizing defeat to the Flames and on a road trip that has been a big mixed bag, is not the end of the world. It only depends if that is exactly what it is.
Due to Hathaway’s season, unless he suddenly looks like an improved version of last year’s Garnet, hitting everything that moves and skating around the ice with purpose, he should exit the lineup once again when the Flyers return home before hosting the Anaheim Ducks next Tuesday. That is what should happen and Hathaway should really be a pure rotational forward, just going in when someone over the age of 30 is preferred to be on the fourth line for some reason.
Instead, the concern is that Tocchet is too worried about changing that dynamic and this was just a six-game rest and reset for the veteran winger and we’ll once again see Grebenkin or Grundstrom undeservingly sit on the sideline. If that does happen and we see Hathaway a whole lot more than we have through the last couple of weeks, it wouldn’t be a nightmare but it would at least be concerning if Tocchet fully reverted back to preferring Hathaway over a player like Grebenkin for the rest of the season.
Basically, it’s a big wait-and-see thing.
In other news, Emil Andrae comes back to the lineup after taking one game to sit up the stands and watch as Noah Juulsen laced up in Calgary in his place. So, that’s good news.