(Tales From the Clipped) Thomas Harley: Elite

Plus some analytics. Plus a rant. Plus a whole lot about Harley, Dallas' second best defender.

If you were here in September, and were kind enough to consider my work worth paying for — thank you for those who do; no shame to those who don’t — then the season Thomas Harley is having shouldn’t be a surprise.

Harley’s offensive zone movement is truly singular. His confident aggression; also singular. Yet against the stereotypes that often accompany puck moving defenders, he has somehow managed to be something that is rarely included into the usual checklist of talent traits that get binned into the perfunctory description of most puck movers — stability. Maybe it’s because Dallas’ blueline is naked without Miro Heiskanen. Or maybe it’s because Harley is that good.

And maybe you’ve always believed in Harley because you don’t need to an amateur like me telling you what your eyes already know; that Harley is elite. Regardless, Harley arrived last year, and when it got down to the marrow, he proved his worth. It’s not every day that a young defender shows up to hockey’s thunderdome, unannounced from the AHL, and then proceeds to run game on the NHL’s best.

Over forty games in, I think we can safely say that the 2022-2023 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs was the bar for him. He’s got nine goals through 43 games, good for ninth among all defenders, just behind Roman Josi, and above Brent Burns. His 1.44 points per hour at even strength per 60 would be good for your average bottom six forward — for a defender, that’s even better.

Did anything change from last time we talked about him? Not really. That’s a good thing! But we’ll get to the things that have, as well as the things he deserves to have. (Cough, a real defensive partner.)