Harley stepping up for Stars, eyes spot on Canada Olympic team

Thomas Harley was on his way to the airport, ready to head to Mexico for a short vacation. But then he got a call that changed his season and the trajectory of his NHL career.

Instead of spending the NHL break for the 4 Nations Face-Off in early February on a beach, the Dallas Stars defenseman was instead summoned to snowy Montreal to play for Canada as an injury replacement for Shea Theodore of the Vegas Golden Knights.

It might have been the best thing to ever happen to Harley.

“Definitely, it probably was, yeah,” Harley said. “I think the second half of the year would have gone differently for sure and then the playoffs would have gone differently."

Heading into the Stars’ game against the Minnesota Wild at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN), Harley has four points (one goal, three assists), and a real chance to represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“I think that the (Canada) coaches and management know that I can maybe handle a high-pressure situation, can react on my feet and handle anything that comes my way,” Harley said at the Hockey Canada Olympic orientation camp in August in Calgary. “But it’s going to be picked on the first 40 games in the season, and what I did last year really doesn't matter, so that’s kind of where my focus is now.”

Dallas (2-0-0) opened the season with a 5-4 win at the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday and a 5-4 shootout win at the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.

Harley had a goal and assist in the win at Colorado, and a team-high 25:52 of ice time.

“As far as my game, I think I finished on a really strong note this past year, so this summer was important for me to continue building up strength and getting my body back to where it needs to be to get through the rigors of an 82-game season,” Harley said. “I feel good, and we’ll see how the season goes.”

Selected by Dallas with the No. 18 pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, Harley developed in the American Hockey League for parts of three seasons before becoming a regular for the Stars in 2023-24.

Last season, he saw his minutes elevate after top defenseman Miro Heiskanen sustained a knee injury in a collision with Vegas forward Mark Stone on Jan. 28.

Harley stepped in to lead the power play and his ice-time increased from 22:27 through his first 48 games to 24:57 for the remainder of the season, helping to fill the large void on the Dallas blue line.

It was one of the reasons Canada came calling.

“Thomas stepped in and he filled big, big shoes and he’s never looked back,” Dallas general manager Jim Nill said. “From 4 Nations, coming back to the team, finding out Miro’s out to the end of the second round of the playoffs, he managed the load, he managed the pressure, and he’s changed our back end.

“You’ve got Miro and him now, you’ve got two defensemen who can play 25-30 minutes a night and that changes your team pretty quick.”

When Harley got the call from Canada, it appeared he would be their seventh defenseman, but Cale Makar was also ill and was unable to play in the pressure cooker that was Canada vs. the United States at Bell Centre in Montreal.

He did not look out of place in a 3-1 loss, playing 18:17 with two shots on goal, three blocks and one hit. The 24-year-old was also in the lineup for Canada in the 3-2 overtime win against the United States in the final, getting an assist on Nathan MacKinnon’s game-opening goal in 21:56 of ice time.

“The 4 Nations was pretty cool,” Harley said. “I think it was eye-opening for me that I could play at that level and eye-opening for the rest of the world, like, ‘who’s this kid from Dallas?’ It was great for me and it definitely gives me a leg up on this (Olympic) team.”

Harley finished the season as the Stars’ top-scoring defenseman with 50 points (16 goals, 34 assists) in 78 games. He then led all Dallas defensemen in the postseason with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in 18 games, helping Dallas reach a third consecutive Western Conference Final, losing in five games to the Edmonton Oilers.

Only forward Mikko Rantanen with 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists), provided more offense for Dallas in the playoffs.

“Thomas is mature beyond his years, which I think makes him unique,” Nill said. “That situation with 4 Nations, that was a tough situation.

“We threw him into that (Canada-United States) game and never looked back, but that’s Thomas. He handles those situations. He’s mature beyond his years. He doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low and to be able to do that, it’s not easy to do on that stage.”

Coming back to the NHL after the tournament, Harley felt like a different player. He looked like a different player, too, taking on a bigger role with Dallas, which has carried into this season.

“It really didn’t change that much of how I thought about myself, but it did give me a big confidence boost,” Harley said. “Just the speed of it, it was the fastest hockey I’ve ever seen played, and on the ice, it seemed faster.

“So to go from that back to the NHL, it felt slow, it was easy. I know that’s kind of laughable to say, but I remembered we played New Jersey in the first game after the break and I had (Nico) Hischier and (Jesper) Bratt coming down on 1-on-1s, and I go take puck away and skate back down the ice, wondering why it can’t always feel like this? It did speed up after a period and got back to normal, but it was a big confidence boost.”

That confidence can only be a good thing for Dallas and Harley’s Olympic chances.

NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report