Tales From The Clipped: Thomas Harley has become one of the game's best defenders. Yes, in the defensive zone too.
All of a defender's strengths. None of their weaknesses.
Readers of the Stars Stack know how much Thomas Harley’s game is appreciated. Whether it was September, 2023, January 2024, January 2024 again when talking about how he fell in the 2019 draft, or when all was said and done last year — there’s just something unique about Harley’s game that the usual description of “puck mover/puck rusher/offensive defenseman” simply doesn’t do justice to.
On the surface, Harley’s regular season campaign doesn’t stand out (or wouldn’t to a non-Stars fan). After a fantastic 2023-2024 run with 47 points, including a whopping 15 goals, Harley followed this year with just 50 total. Granted, we know when things changed: Miro Heiskanen’s injury, which led to Harley going on the top power play unit, and the 4 Nations Face-Off, which Drew Doughty had nothing to do with. From January 30 onward, Harley tallied 27 points. 54 percent of those points came in the last 29 games.
Harley has always been a key to Dallas’ blueline success, but now he just might be the key. How else to make sense of Dallas’ success without Heiskanen? Dallas’s blueline was supposed to be its weakness. In some ways, it still is. But with a seven-game series win over Colorado, and now control over Winnipeg through three, I think it’s safe to say that this Stars blueline has a lot more juice than it appears at first glance. A hole, sure, but not an abyss.
While a lot of players deserve credit, today is not about them. Nor do I consider it fair to Harley to credit others. Like with Mikko Rantanen, there is a clear cut leader at Harley’s position. 2025 will define Harley’s career as somebody who is more than just the “second-best” defender on Dallas’ blueline. He’s a star in his own right, and he’s led the way.
Right now, Harley’s point totals aren’t super eye-popping, but eight points through 10 games is still third among all defenders, behind only Cam Fowler and Evan Bouchard. However, he’s become so much more than just a traditional puck-mover. He’s been a shutdown defenseman too. So that’s what today is all about: how Harley became Esa Lindell (humor me), but without Lindell’s weaknesses.