Flyers’ Garnet Hathaway fined $5,000 for kneeing Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski

The Columbus Blue Jackets are without the services of No. 1 defenseman Zach Werenski for the next one to two weeks after placing him on injured reserve Friday. The reason: he suffered a quad contusion on a collision with Philadelphia Flyers right winger Garnet Hathaway. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety decided that the play wasn’t clean and handed Hathaway a $5,000 fine Friday, the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement, for kneeing.

Here’s a look at the play, which occurred in the second period of Thursday’s game:

The 2023-24 NHL rulebook defines kneeing as “the act of a player leading with his knee and in some cases extending his leg.” Hathaway received a minor penalty on the play, but the DOPS operates independently of any rulings made by on-ice officials and decided further discipline was warranted.

An injury cannot determine whether the perpetrator of an illegal play will receive supplemental discipline. If the DOPS decides a play is illegal and warrants supplemental discipline, however, the injury can impact the severity of the punishment, which makes the fact Hathaway received just a fine a mild surprise. Evidently, the DOPS didn’t deem the play predatory enough to require a suspension.

Hathaway, 31, signed with the Flyers this past summer as an unrestricted free agent on a two-year contract at a $2.375 million AAV after finishing last season as a trade-deadline rental with the Boston Bruins. A heavy-hitting grinder at 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds, he has carried a reputation as a strong defensive forward across his 458 career games.

Hathaway averages more than a penalty minute per game in his career and isn’t a stranger to the principal’s office. He was suspended three games in 2019 for spitting on an opponent and had been fined on two other occasions before Friday’s news – once for embellishment in March 2022 and again in November 2022 for fighting in the middle of an on-ice official review.