Thomas Harley at eliteprospects.com
This young man definitely deserves a thread.
My interest in him was first piqued last season by this article by THW, who do a good job of describing his game:
https://thehockeywriters.com/nhl-prospect-thomas-harley/
This year, though, Harley’s offensive game has shot through the roof. Still a flawless positional defender in his own end and on the transition (the best way of describing him is “ice cold” IMO), Harley has also increasingly become a physical force. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was 6’4” or taller and close to 200 pounds with a lot of room to fill out. His shot has also benefited by his growth and is a good weapon. His biggest growth has been his confidence with the puck in the offensive end, though, and it’s showing on the stat sheet, where he has 3 goals and 6 assists in 9 games. He’s Mississauga’s best defender already - a team that is performing far beyond my expectations for this year.
I haven’t seen a bunch of him, but I think he’d already be worthy of being ranked within the first round. I’m a huge fan of Bowen Byram, but I find myself searching to justify any gap between the two. And if he can keep up his offensive pace over the course of the year, GMs will be falling over themselves running to select the big, collected, mobile defenseman come June.