Is Thomas Harley still a thing? | Update: he is THE thing

FirstRowUpperDeck

Registered User
May 20, 2014
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Arlington, TX
I remember when he was drafted, many draft experts said he was a good mid first round steal, or some such. Of course, the Stars all said we got our guy, as well. We had heard that so much that I kind of brushed it off (Honka, Guri, Tufte, Delly) who were all, except 2017, over rated first round picks.
 
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piqued

nos merentur hoc
Nov 22, 2006
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Very strange and against-type for the Stars to have a player like Harley with high natural assertiveness. Doesn't have to be told, or coached, or begged to attack. He just does it. The game can look shockingly simple when you believe there's nothing stopping you (and have the ability to back it up).
 

Spotty 2 Hotty

Special teams, special plays, special players
Feb 28, 2008
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Very strange and against-type for the Stars to have a player like Harley with high natural assertiveness. Doesn't have to be told, or coached, or begged to attack. He just does it. The game can look shockingly simple when you believe there's nothing stopping you (and have the ability to back it up).

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Starry Knight

Tele-Wyatt
Jun 9, 2013
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I figured with the number of goals he's scored that he must have an abnormally high shooting percentage, but it's not that unreasonable. It's nice that we have Miro and Harley as young, top-pairing defencemen. It'd be nice if one of them was right-handed though.
 

Kipper 17

Registered User
Aug 11, 2006
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I figured with the number of goals he's scored that he must have an abnormally high shooting percentage, but it's not that unreasonable. It's nice that we have Miro and Harley as young, top-pairing defencemen. It'd be nice if one of them was right-handed though.
Love the new avatar
 

Troy McClure

Suter will never be scratched
Mar 12, 2002
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I figured with the number of goals he's scored that he must have an abnormally high shooting percentage, but it's not that unreasonable. It's nice that we have Miro and Harley as young, top-pairing defencemen. It'd be nice if one of them was right-handed though.
It would be interesting to pull up a chart showing where his goals are coming from because my guess is most are from the slot. He's an aggressive player trying to get the puck or himself into high percentage areas, but he does also still take enough of the routine shots from the point to keep from his shooting percentage in a repeatable range.
 

FirstRowUpperDeck

Registered User
May 20, 2014
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Arlington, TX
Very strange and against-type for the Stars to have a player like Harley with high natural assertiveness. Doesn't have to be told, or coached, or begged to attack. He just does it. The game can look shockingly simple when you believe there's nothing stopping you (and have the ability to back it up).
Yes, and it took them a few years in Austin to teach him to throttle it back a bit and play some better defense. He seems like he is doing it all, and none of that "it takes a while to develop a defenseman" baloney (it does, but not for him and Miro)

We have given up a lot of odd man rushes this year, but every game I see Jani or Esa behind the other team's net, or jumping in the rush, etc. It's no wonder we got caught out of position so often.
 

joshik

In Duchene we believe
Jul 1, 2017
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Harley has the same amount of goals as Josi and Hedman. Thats some elite company. But ofc he is the best out of the 3.
 

ElGuapo

^Plethora of piñatas
Nov 30, 2010
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Isn't his shooting % really high though for a defenseman? Josi's is half of what THE THING'S is with the same amount of goals. Hedman's % is right in between. Also a lot higher than Makar's who has 11 goals.
 

LT

Global Moderator
Jul 23, 2010
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It's a bit high for a defenseman, but not so high that we should expect significant imminent regression.
 
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Troy McClure

Suter will never be scratched
Mar 12, 2002
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It's a bit high for a defenseman, but not so high that we should expect significant imminent regression.
I could see his shooting percentage start to decrease as he's now getting more ice time and more power play time as the season goes on. This should lead to more shots on goal even if the conversion rate doesn't remain quite as high.
 
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Troy McClure

Suter will never be scratched
Mar 12, 2002
47,844
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South of Heaven
“Has that dog in him” is the new “intangibles” and quite frankly I'm here for it
when can we anticipate the advanced stats community to stop dragging their feet and give the people what they want
I bet if you look at some fancy chart showing where his shot attempts come from, you’ll see the fancy stat community illustrating his doggedness.
 

Hull Fan

The Future is Now
Mar 21, 2007
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Is Philippe Boucher's single season goals record in danger? Boucher scored a franchise record 19 goals in 06-07.

Harley has 12 in 46 games. He's on pace for 23. I know OT now is vastly different now but man Harley looks like he could eclipse that.
 

David Castillo

Registered User
Oct 29, 2014
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San Antonio, TX
Ok so how did he fall in 2019?

And I know. He played a lot of minutes for the Steelheads, and was seen as a "power play merchant" or whatever. But all the physical tools were there and that's usually what GMs love. Besides, Broberg, York, Soderstrom, hell even Seider -- they all had question marks too. So what happened?

I followed that draft but I've never heard anything about him farting during the interview or something.
 

piqued

nos merentur hoc
Nov 22, 2006
32,091
3,102
There might be various explanations.

2019 was the height of the USNDT craze. (Not that that's going away, but it was especially acute). Harley was the first player taken out of the OHL which seems insane. And as we know the Stars are laser-focused on monitoring the OHL to exclusion of other places.

We also had a team ahead of us light a pick on fire taking a Russian and a team light a pick on fire taking a goalie, so that helped.

As far as Harley himself, his confidence and general mastery can be misinterpreted as nonchalance if you don't know the player well enough. We now are witnessing an aggressive, assertive finished(?) product, but there's no denying that he can be very casual at times and some scouts just want to see action and "motor". See also Robertson, Jason.

You need a combination of there being slight correctable flaws with the prospect in question and teams blowing their own picks.
 

LT

Global Moderator
Jul 23, 2010
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I also remember some mentions of Harley not taking his development particularly seriously until the last couple of years. Something shifted when he ended up in the AHL all of last season, and his play has improved steadily ever since.
 

Azzuri

Registered User
Feb 6, 2017
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I'd believe it. Harley was bad in training camp last year. He pouted a bit from what we heard too. Sounds like he needed to get humbled and mature a bit. Credit to Texas for putting him in a position to work on his defensive game in the AHL all year and let him become the player he is today.
 

serp

Registered User
Jan 17, 2016
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I'd believe it. Harley was bad in training camp last year. He pouted a bit from what we heard too. Sounds like he needed to get humbled and mature a bit. Credit to Texas for putting him in a position to work on his defensive game in the AHL all year and let him become the player he is today.

After the Caps game DeBoer flat out said 18 months ago in training camp he thought Harley was not close to beeing a regular NHL player.


At ~3:45
 
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