State Your Case: Emerging defensemen Faber, Harley

The nationally televised game between the Minnesota Wild and the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET: MAX, TNT) features two of the best young defensemen in the NHL going head-to-head.

For the Wild (17-18-4), it is Brock Faber. The 21-year-old rookie is playing like a poised veteran while eating major minutes and scoring at a regular clip. He has 19 points (two goals, 17 assists) in 39 games and averaging 24:47 of ice time per game, which leads the Wild and all rookie defensemen.

For the Stars (23-11-5), it is Thomas Harley. The 22-year-old has stepped out of the shadows in a major way after lackluster results during his first two partial seasons with the Stars. Harley has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in 36 games this season. He is averaging 19:10 per game.

Both are on the path to be special players, but which is the better player at the moment?

That's the question before NHL.com senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke and staff writer Derek Van Diest in this installment of State Your Case.

Van Diest

Faber is making a great impression in his first full NHL season, playing like a poised veteran in the way he is able to navigate the blue line. A second-round selection (No. 45) in the 2020 NHL Draft, Faber leads the Wild and all rookie defensemen in ice time. For a rookie to be leading an NHL team in ice time is almost unheard of, particularly since many coaches and general managers feel defensemen need roughly 200 games to fully develop and are usually brought along slowly. Faber has been thrown into the deep end and has played more than 30 minutes five times this season, including two instances of back-to-back games of more than 30 minutes. Along with Faber’s ability to log heavy minutes, he plays the point on the top power play and kills penalties. Was it not for Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks, Faber would be a favorite to win the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. Even so, Faber will be getting consideration.

Roarke

Harley is a little bit ahead of the developmental curve in this debate with 34 NHL games under his belt from the 2021-22 season and another six games last season. It’s enough to preclude him for eligibility for Rookie of the Year, an honor for which Faber should be getting more consideration, as Derek rightly states. But Harley is only a year older than Faber and he has taken huge strides this season. After getting six points (one goal, five assists) in his first 40 games, Harley is scoring more freely this season. His emergence has made one of the deepest blue lines in the League even better as he joins Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Ryan Suter to make a stout top four. He has handled every assignment he has been given and his plus-11 is the best mark among all the team’s defensemen. He has been among the biggest revelations in the NHL this season.

Van Diest

I agree Shawn, Harley has come a long way in this season and is fitting in well with the Stars’ exceptional blue line. What is impressive with Faber for me, is that he has not had Jared Spurgeon or Jonas Brodin to help guide him through long stretches this season. Spurgeon been limited to 16 games this season with a lower-body injury; Brodin has been injured for the past month after taking a hit from Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane on Dec. 8. With the two defensemen out, Faber has had to pick up the slack, which can be a tough ask of a young defensemen. Yet Faber has answered the call and is playing more than Cale Makar (21:00), Quinn Hughes (21:53), and Victor Hedman (20:50) each did in their respective rookie seasons, which puts his accomplishments this season in perspective. If Faber can continue this progression, it won’t be long until he is considered one of the top defensemen in the League. He has been an anomaly to the 200-games theory and Minnesota is fortunate to have him on its blue line.

Roarke

Look, Faber might be the better defenseman in the long run. He certainly has the credentials to become elite. But right now, it is hard to argue with what Harley is doing, especially because it is so valuable to a Dallas team that has designs on a long Stanley Cup run this spring and needs to keep pace in the Central Division. Heiskanen likely holds the key for the Stars in this endeavor, but he has been out since getting injured in a game against Colorado on Jan. 4. In that game, Harley played 24:30, more than five minutes above his per-game average. Two nights later, he played 24:23 and had two assists in a 4-3 loss to Nashville. On Monday, he played 23:10 and was plus-1 when the Stars beat the Wild 4-0. I can’t wait to see these two budding stars go head-to-head for the second time in 48 hours.