“The kid just keeps delivering”: Harley’s heroics a staple in blossoming NHL career

Thomas Harley’s path to the NHL has been, well, a little weird.

But, in a lot of ways, that’s what has made him the defenseman he is today.

Drafted 18th overall by the Stars in 2019, Harley’s career started normally. He returned for his last year with Mississauga in the OHL and was a candidate to step up to the Stars in 2020-21. However, COVID stopped the sports world in March of 2020 and when play returned in July of that year, it was for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the bubble in Edmonton.

The Stars’ front office made the decision to use the traveling depth roster as a place where prospects could get experience, so players like Jason Robertson, Jake Oettinger and Harley were included. That proved smart. Harley made his NHL debut in a round-robin game, and that was important. He also spent two months sequestered with the NHL team, and that meant a real classroom on what it’s like to prepare for and play hockey at the highest level.

COVID again opened the door for Harley. Under normal CHL rules, he would have had to play in the NHL or get returned to Major Junior. But Harley was allowed to play in the AHL as a 19-year-old, and he logged 38 games in Cedar Park with the Texas Stars. The next season, he split time between the NHL and AHL and seemed to take the necessary steps forward to becoming a full-time NHL player.

But it wasn’t easy.

The constant mental battle to try to “take the next step” can be draining, and when Harley showed up for camp in 2022, new coach Pete DeBoer decided the young blueliner wasn’t ready. So he sent him back to the minors to work with the AHL coaching staff and veterans like Alexander Petrovic. The skilled Harley concentrated on playing defense, killing penalties and learning angles. It was a transformative season.

“The best thing was that I didn’t get called up and down,” Harley said. “I was able to settle in there and work on my game, and that was good for me.”

He was called up near the end of the 2022-23 season and ended up playing all 19 playoff games for Dallas that year. He averaged 16:10, had 9 points (1 goal, 8 assists) and locked in a spot on the NHL roster.

Last season, Harley had 47 points (15 goals, 32 assists) and was plus-28 in 79 games. He had just 4 assists in 19 playoff games, but he was plus-8 and saw his minutes jump to 23:52 a night in the postseason.

At that point, it sure looked like Harley’s path was where it was supposed to be. He started this year as a perfect No. 2 defenseman behind Miro Heiskanen, with the chance to take an even bigger role on the team. He was a perfect complementary defenseman.

In his first 48 games of the season, Harley had 23 points (7 goals, 16 assists) and averaged 22:26 in time on ice. Very respectable.

But then Heiskanen went down with a knee injury on Jan. 28, and Harley’s world changed. He had to become the quarterback of the power play, he had to take the heaviest minutes and toughest assignments, and he had to use his skill even more while also leaning on those lessons he learned in the AHL.

The 23-year-old received a taste of that and was ready for a break when the 4 Nations Face-Off came up on Feb. 12. Harley was about to board a plane for a beach vacation when DeBoer made a call. An assistant coach for Team Canada, DeBoer asked Harley to get on a different plane and fly to Montreal to play a huge game against Team USA. Harley jumped in for the injured Cale Makar. He finished out the tournament and helped Team Canada win a gold medal.

It was a special moment for a lot of reasons, not the last of which was how it helped Harley grow. When he returned to league play, Harley was among the top three scoring defensemen in the NHL. His points per game average went from 0.48 to 0.90 as he had 27 points (9 goals, 18 assists) in the final 30 games of the season. He gained almost three more minutes of ice time per game, and he helped the Stars finish second in the Central Division.

“I think that helped him. I think it gave him confidence,” DeBoer said. “He’s got a real quiet confidence to him. He’s never overwhelmed. We called him up two years ago after spending the entire season in the American League and he played 20-plus minutes a night for us when we got to the conference final. Then, last year, he went on another run to the conference final, playing big minutes against top players.”

Harley was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but he has dual citizenship because of his parents. He chose to play for Canada when he was younger, so that is now his international designation. Good friend and teammate Oettinger is from Minnesota and plays for Team USA, so after Harley scored the OT game-winning goal to clinch the Second Round series for the Stars against the Jets on Saturday, Oettinger couldn’t help but have fun with Harley’s 4 Nations experience.

"I think everyone in the locker room knew how good he was, but he finally got to show it,” Oettinger said. “When he ditched the U.S. and played for Canada, he got to show everyone just how good he was with the best players in the world. Not surprising to the guys in here.”

Heiskanen returned from his knee injury early in the week and has played in three playoff games. He logged 23:40 on Saturday. That said, Harley had 25:00 and tallied a goal and assist in a 2-1 win.

We have never seen a combo like this in Dallas if Heiskanen returns to full health and full speed and Harley continues to get better every game.

“The fact that you have two guys like that on the same team is pretty rare,” Oettinger said. “I think every franchise in the league would want to have one of them and we have two, so we're very lucky. They make me look really good every night."

Harley is matter-of-fact in his approach to the game. “It’s all still just hockey,” he said. But he understands the nuances and the difficulties of his job. On Wednesday, the next step begins against a very talented Edmonton Oilers team.

“If there’s an MVP the second half of the season with what happened with Miro, I think it would have to be him,” DeBoer said of Harley. “He just went to a different level. We piled so much on his shoulders, from running the power play, to playing against other teams’ best players, transitioning the puck, and the kid just keeps delivering and delivering every night.”

That just seems like another twist on this weird path he’s been traveling.

“I want to be the best defenseman in the world, as crazy as that sounds, and I want to win the Stanley Cup,” he said in a Stars video this year. “Hopefully, we can get those done.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.