Flyers Apologize After Hot Mic Incident During Garnet Hathaway Zoom Call

Garnet Hathaway signed a two-year deal with the Philadelphia Flyers on the opening night of free agency. As will all new signees, he spent time with local media on a Zoom call on Tuesday afternoon.

The video was posted afterwards to social media account. However, it was quickly deleted after a hot mic caught members of the said team making disparaging marks after the opening question to Hathaway. Keith Jones, the Flyers President of Hockey Operations, released a statement via the team’s Twitter account and apologized for the incident.

”Earlier today, our team’s social media account streamed a recording of a virtual press conference which included disrespectful remarks by members of our social media staff. On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, I want to extend our apologies. Any disrespect towards reporters is completely unacceptable, especially when they are simply doing their job. We have reached out to the reporter and outlet personally to express our regret, and will continue to promote an environment of mutual respect when working with the media.”

The reporter in question, Giana Han of The Inquirer, kicked off the press conference by asking Hathaway about his interest in joining the Flyers’ rebuild. The comments made afterward were not heard by Hathaway or anyone on the Zoom call at the time. It was not made public until the video was then posted afterward.

Despite the original video being deleted, the comments in question where caught and shared by an account named Lights Out Hockey. The below video does continue profanity in it.

https://twitter.com/lightsouthky/status/1678911580375752704?s=46&t=Bm3J0tt8Q2vzBYUB5qklFA

Flyers General Manager Danny Briere was on 94-WIP on Wednesday morning and discussed the hot mic moment, mentioning he has since spoken to Han and apologized for what occurred.

”It’s not what we think of the reporter, especially Giana, who has worked extremely hard to get to where she is. I have reached out to Giana myself to express my regret with what happened and I hope she’s doing better today.”