Thomas Harley’s elite play turns Canada’s Olympic weakness into a strength
On the surface, Canada’s most generationally elite players are fuelling their Olympic group stage play just as we knew they would.
Through two games, we’re seeing all the magical contributions we expected from a collection of living-legend-grade athletes. Connor McDavid generated more chances than the entire Czech team in Canada’s first game, and he picked up three more points in the second vs. Switzerland, extending his tournament-leading total to six. Nathan MacKinnon has carried over his MVP performance from last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off with goals in both games in Milan. Sidney Crosby’s hand-eye coordination looked as good as ever on his deflection of a perfect Mitch Marner pass for Canada’s fourth goal Friday vs. the Swiss. Next-wave superstar Macklin Celebrini, Canada’s youngest player in the best-on-best era, has two goals in two games.
But here’s a sentence few would’ve expected to utter even a few days ago:
Where would Canada be without Thomas Harley?
Maybe we should’ve seen his Olympic breakout coming. He slid in seamlessly as an emergency replacement at the 4 Nations last season when Canada lost Shea Theodore to injury and Cale Makar to illness. Harley enjoyed an excellent 2024-25 campaign with the Dallas Stars, notching career bests with 16 goals and 50 points, ranking among the NHL’s top play-driving blueliners and finishing seventh in the Norris Trophy vote. He sent Dallas to the Western Conference Final with an overtime winner to eliminate the Winnipeg Jets in Game 6 of the second round, too.
But Harley lost a lot of his momentum early this season.
A lower-body injury in November cost him 12 games. When in the lineup, Harley wasn’t himself. The Stars allowed more chances than they created with him on the ice. At 5-on-5, opponents generated 47.60 percent of the expected goals with him on the ice after he’d never sat below 53.29 percent in his first four NHL seasons. His scoring rate dipped to barely a half point per game.
But the numbers were deceiving. His partner had a lot to do with it. Being stapled to the lumbering Ilya Lyubushkin held Harley back. When they were together at 5-on-5 through the Olympic break in 2025-26, Dallas generated a staggeringly bad 34.06 percent of the expected goals. Harley’s number climbed to 49.57 percent without Lyubushkin, and Harley had much better results when paired with Nils Lundkvist. With Miro Heiskanen healthy, Harley’s power-play time was also down almost a full minute year over year, from 2:23 to 1:25.
Maybe all those factors kept him relatively under the radar leading up to Canada’s roster announcement on New Year’s Eve. Harley brought impressive tools with his swift skating and 6-foot-3, 214-pound frame, but other similarly gifted lefthanded rearguards seemingly built better resumes to open 2025-26 in sensational New York Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer and well-rounded Washington Capitals veteran Jakob Chychrun.
Yet Harley, paired with Drew Doughty so far in the 2026 Olympics, has made the Canada brass, led by GM Doug Armstong and head coach Jon Cooper, look darned smart.
In Game 1, Harley was incredibly steady, making smart puck decisions in his own end and crisp breakout passes. He led the team in ice time at 20:38 and, per InStat, Canada had a 67.5 percent edge in expected goals with Harley on the ice at 5-on-5.
In Game 2 Friday versus Switzerland, Harley remained mistake-free, but his game also popped in flashier ways. Late in the first period of Canada’s 5-1 win, he cruised into the slot, accepted a pass from McDavid and unleashed a deftly placed wrist shot through goaltender Akira Schmid’s legs, netting what proved to be the game-winning goal, helping Canada clinch Group A and a bye to next week’s quarterfinal round.
Besides Cale Makar, Canada’s defense corps was, in theory, a weaker point on the team compared to the stacked groups Team USA and Team Sweden were bringing to Milan. But Harley looks the part of an elite all-around blueliner so far in this tournament. If he can maintain that level – while driving a separate pair to Makar’s – it makes Canada all the more dominant. The superstars are expected to carry this team, but if its supposedly marginal roster picks keep making major contributions…it will be impossible to keep Canada off the podium.
But maybe Harley was this good all along and simply the victim of circumstance in Dallas early this year – in terms of health and deployment. He looks like Canada’s second most important defenseman right now.
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