The hockey lessons Garnet Hathaway learned on his journey to the Flames

Garnet Hathaway is smart.

Not because he received a Kindle for Christmas. Not because his New Year’s resolution is to read more.

Not because of his highfalutin resume – prep-school foundation, Ivy League education.

It’s because Hathaway’s brain continues to be open for business.

“It begins as a young child,” Hathaway’s father, John, explained via email. “It starts when parents teach their children that learning is fun, it’s personal, and it’s critical to success. That doesn’t mean learning is only about school.”

Example: one day when Hathaway was seven years old and the family was in the midst of an around-the-globe odyssey, he recognized the importance of listening to his parents. Machine-gun-toting soldiers had just barged into a restaurant in Tibet and Dad instructed Hathaway and his four siblings to sneak out. Like, pronto. They did.

“The purpose (of the three-month trip) was to introduce the children to the world they will be living in … the good, the bad, the rich, the poor, the amazing places and cultures in our world,” John said. “By doing so, hopefully, they would understand better who they are, what their own dream is, and that there are incredible adventures and accomplishments possible in one’s life.”

Fair to say, that message took hold.

These days professional hockey is the classroom and the 26-year-old, ever the student, is proving to be quick on the uptake.

The rammy winger – an unspectacular but steady producer in college and the minors – has upgraded his offensive stock. This season, Hathaway churned out better than a point per game for the AHL’s Stockton Heat before being summoned by the Calgary Flames.

Now, in his latest stint in the NHL, he is showing he can do more than batter, having collected, during one stretch, seven points in 11 games.

The cornerstone of the newfound flair? Quality linemates, yeah. Confidence, sure. But, at the heart of the evolution, is one thing – his on-ice education. Figuring it out.

“I’ve learned throughout my years – I’ve actually gained experience,” Hathaway said. “I’ve put stuff together in terms of how the game works. To come into a league like this, they need you to do A, B, C. To stay in the league? You have to do X, Y, and Z. You have to continue to progress.”

Not that Hathaway, with his business-entrepreneurship degree from Brown University, is offering his employers some in-game application of Keynesian Economics – even if it appeared that he had been determined to cram some fiscal stimulus into Derek Grant’s ear-hole the other night after the Anaheim forward clipped goalie Mike Smith.

His game remains guided more by prison rules than slide rules. The upshot? Mayhem more often than Mensa. But building his base of know-how drives him.

“I ask questions every day,” the native of Kennebunkport, Maine, said. “Even on the bench, I’m like, ‘Hey, what would you do in that situation?’ I think learning, picking up stuff, is the biggest thing that’s helped me.”

The boss vouches for the assessment – that Hathaway is no passive observer.

“Some (prospects) watch and maybe not comprehend,” said Brad Treliving, general manager of the Flames. “He watches, comprehends, puts it into action. He’s a brilliant mind – ‘I’m going to watch, I’m going to listen, I’m going to learn, I’m going to apply it to my game.'”

Acquiring a hockey education requires countless lessons. Here are a few from Hathaway’s journey. Call it the “Chronicles of Garnia,” which, by the way, was his excellent – and since changed – Twitter handle:

Hathaway learns that determination catches eyes:

At a summertime hockey school, former Boston Bruins forward Ken Linseman takes one look at the seven-year-old’s frenetic pace and dubs him Little Taz – after the original Tasmanian Devil, Terry O’Reilly.

“It wasn’t about the skill,” John said. “It was the tenacity that stood out. Never quit.”

Same on the soccer pitch.

Even when coaches forbid Hathaway from shooting the ball – and thereby scoring all of the team’s goals – the little boy still makes sure he controls the game.

“Garnet was winning every battle,” John said.

Hathaway learns that NHL rankings mean nothing:

Despite being slotted 110th by Central Scouting, the 2010 draft comes and goes without a phone call, which stings.

“I remember refreshing the computer, ‘Well, maybe,’ and then, ‘Well, maybe,'” Hathaway said. “A little disappointing … (but) the day after that, you realize it doesn’t matter, that there’s other ways to get there.”

By then he’d already skated on a line with Chris Kreider, a 2009 first-round pick, at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., so he figures he’s in the ballpark, ability-wise.

“It didn’t seem far-fetched at all.”

Further encouragement comes from NHL scout Gary Eggleston, who tells Hathaway’s dad that the teenager may have a future. Post-game, he gets to meet Eggleston.

“Garnet’s face lit up,” John said. “I really think it changed Garnet’s life. Just that someone with that much experience would tell him that his dream was still alive.”

Hathaway learns that bird-dogs are everywhere:

Brown University, in Providence, R.I., is not a hockey hotbed.

But, as a freshman, Hathaway watches NHL clubs chase senior winger Harry Zolnierczyk. The Philadelphia Flyers win.

The year before, Aaron Volpatti was corralled by the Vancouver Canucks. Neither player had been drafted.

“I was like, ‘People are watching,’ you know what I mean?” Hathaway said. “It’s a real thing.”

Hathaway learns that it pays to be proactive:

After a strong junior year – 21 points in 33 games – he decides to shop his wares at summertime development camps and gets invitations from Boston and Pittsburgh.

The Bruins assigned him No. 68 – mere weeks after Jaromir Jagr skated in the Stanley Cup final for the team.

“That was hilarious,” Hathaway said. “Someone posted a picture – Jags, then me. Oh man, that was funny.”

But unlike draft-pick darlings who have the luxury of easing into camps, the unhitched must make a mark – even if it’s July.

“It’s competitive,” Hathaway said. “When I got there, I said, ‘Hey, a lot of guys here are going to play in the NHL. Why can’t I be one of them?'”

Hathaway learns that accountability matters:

After completing his no-frills college career, he fielded offers from the Penguins, Flames, and Phoenix Coyotes before settling on the Flames.

After the contract is signed – an AHL-only deal – Hathaway’s agent urged him to inform all the suitors, which means placing a call to Coyotes’ assistant general manager — Brad Treliving.

“It was the first time I’d had to say no to somebody.”

Treliving remembers that conversation – and the one they had weeks later when he, too, joined the Flames.

“I phoned him, ‘Funny how the world works. You gassed me. Guess who’s in Calgary now?'” Treliving said, with a laugh. “I gave him the gears. We had a chuckle over it.”

Hathaway learns that pro hockey is a new world:

Directly from the airport – this is the spring of 2014 – the young man goes to the rink in Abbotsford, B.C.

Before he can drop his bags, assistant coach Robbie Ftorek pulls him into an office.

“I sat with Robbie for … well, it felt like a couple hours,” Hathaway said. “You think you ask weird questions? He was throwing me for a loop – ‘Imagine I’m your grandma. Explain defence to me.’ He was seeing how I think the game. Right then, it hit me, ‘I’ve got to pick up a lot of stuff as I go.'”

Including translations of coach Troy Ward’s terminology – “He had his own language … I had no idea what anything meant” – and adjustments to captain Dean Arsene’s intensity.

“They called him Mean Dean Arsene,” Hathaway said. “I’ve never felt that many cross-checks in a practice in my life.”

Hathaway learns that fighting happens:

In his AHL debut, Hathaway nails one of the Toronto Marlies and, before reaching the bench for a change, Marlies winger Jamie Devane mauls him.

“I tried grabbing on for dear life,” Hathaway said of his first-ever scrap. “I had his fist marks on my ribs for the next couple days.”

A few nights later, Hathaway tangled with Wade Brookbank of the Rockford IceHogs. In the 149th fight of his pro career, Brookbank administers a beating.

“That’s one thing I’ll never regret, even though my nose is going to be a little crooked for the rest of my life.”

As Hathaway staggered to the dressing room, Heat toughie Trevor Gillies, a healthy scratch, rushes down from the press box.

“He grabbed me by the shoulder as I was gushing blood and said, ‘That’s the way to go.’ It was a big respect.”

Hathaway learns that taking advantage is wise:

Pushing into his first full year in the Flames’ system, he dressed for Adirondack’s season-opener. Then he’s scratched for Game 2.

But when Josh Jooris is called up (for good, as it turns out), Hathaway returned to the lineup – and stayed there. He skated in 72 games, scoring 19 times and earning a coveted NHL deal.

“Every guy that plays pro hockey, they have to have that talk with themselves – ‘Hey, how long are you going to play?'” Hathaway said. “I think (I gave myself) an arbitrary three years or something. Then I got the NHL contract and I was like, ‘Hey, let’s add another couple years to it.'”

Hathaway learns that conditioning is key:

This season, only Mark Giordano and Michael Frolik put up better fitness numbers than Hathaway, 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds.

Some credit goes to Brian McDonough, who operates Edge Performance Systems in Foxboro, Mass., and cracks the whip on dozens of NHLers every summer.

But McDonough insists this young man – “Gah-net” – deserves everything he gets.

“He raises the bar for the group … he works his ass off,” McDonough said. “Garnet’s a psycho. He’s really good at suffering, really good at learning how to push outside of his comfort zone.”

Now here is Hathaway, body tuned and mind engaged.

Sure signs of progress in Calgary? He has been allowed to upgrade his dressing-room address – leaving behind the uncomfortable perch between the goalies’ stalls, directly under an ever-blowing heating vent – and his sweater number, from training camp’s No. 64 to the varsity squad’s No. 21.

He’s still living in a hotel, but he may soon be looking for more permanent lodging.

“He never quits,” John said of his youngest child. “Failing isn’t about falling down, it’s about not getting back up. He has always gotten back up … and with more determination than ever. No matter what he has faced in life, no matter what odds, no matter how many people told him he couldn’t make it to even Division III (college) hockey – let alone the NHL – he never quit.”

Hathaway’s head, it seems, is always in the game.

Well, most of the time.

John and wife Suellen, from the start, promoted thinking big, which meant occasional – and approved – spells of wool-gathering.

“I mandated that our children, from the earliest age, take five minutes in school each day, no matter what the teacher said, and look out the window and dream,” said John, president and CEO of Shucks Maine Lobster, a processing operation. “It’s important that people, from a young age, realize that they are in charge of their own life, their own dream.

“First, they have to find it. And, as the saying goes, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.'”

(Top photo credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports)