The Boston Bruins are likely to see some turnover this offseason. They have nine pending unrestricted free agents and have more cap space than any Eastern Conference playoff team besides the Carolina Hurricanes. They also, however, have a group of players who have been mainstays in Boston that have proven capable of competing year in and year out. Let’s take a look at the 2023-24 season of one member of that group: Brandon Carlo.
This was Carlo’s eighth season with the black and gold and he has been a consistent presence as a right-shot defenseman the entire time. Despite not accounting for a whole lot of offense, he has never finished a season with a negative plus/minus, averaging around 20 minutes of ice time per game in his NHL career. The Bruins locked him down in the summer of 2021, signing him to a six-year deal worth $24.6 million.
Shut-Down Regular Season
Carlo was as solid as ever during the 2023-24 regular season. He played in 76 games and paired four goals with ten assists over the course of the campaign. He was second on the team to Charlie McAvoy in blocked shots, and his plus/minus of plus-23 was the best on the Bruins, beating out David Pastrnak’s plus-21. The fact that the defenseman finished first on the team in this statistic is particularly impressive considering that he had an offensive zone start percentage (oZS%) of just 16.6%. For context, Pastrnak had an oZS% of 58.7% in the regular season and McAvoy had a mark of 59.9%.
Carlo will never win a Norris Trophy; his 15 points per season will never compete with the likes of Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox or even McAvoy. The Bruins do not pay him to make an impact on the offensive end, however, hence why such a large majority of his shifts start in the defensive zone. They pay him to shut the other team down and get the puck moving in the other direction; that is Carlo’s job and he does it really well. The Bruins are lucky to have such a steady shut-down presence on their right side.
Memorable Postseason
Carlo’s postseason was electric. The Bruins took a 1-0 lead into the second period of the team’s first game of the postseason. With five minutes to go in the frame, Jake DeBrusk won a puck battle behind the Toronto Maple Leafs’ net and found Carlo, who clapped one home above the blocker of Ilya Samsonov, giving the Bruins control of the game. He went pointless for the next five contests, but showed up when it mattered most in Game 7. On a Maple Leafs’ power play in a 0-0 tie in the second period, Max Domi found John Tavares on a tip that looked like it had the chance to get past Jeremy Swayman had it not deflected off of Carlo’s outstretched stick. The puck remained loose, and Tavares was looking at a wide-open net, but the Bruins’ defenseman was there again, batting the puck away and keeping the game scoreless. He then went on to register a secondary assist in Pastrnak’s overtime series-winning goal.
Related: Bruins 2023-24 Report Card: Jake DeBrusk
Perhaps the most memorable moment of the Bruins’ centennial season came in the first game of their next series. Carlo was questionable for the team’s matchup with the Florida Panthers on the road as his wife was giving birth back in Boston. After a successful delivery to a baby boy, he hopped on the team plane in Boston just five hours before puck drop, arriving in time for the matchup with the Panthers.
With time winding down in the second period, the Bruins found themselves in transition with the puck on the stick of Charlie Coyle. The Panthers appeared to overplay the rush, and Carlo found himself open as the fourth man to enter the zone. After a tape-to-tape pass from Coyle, the new dad ripped a beautiful bar-down wrist shot over the shoulder of Sergei Bobrovsky, giving the Bruins a 3-1 lead and himself 24 hours he will never forget. Pastrnak was quick to jump over the boards to grab the puck for his teammate. While the Bruins were not able to get the job done in their second round matchup, Carlo’s performance in Game 1 was likely the team’s highlight of the year.
Overall Grade: A-
While Carlo may not be considered a core piece like McAvoy, Pastrnak, or Swayman, he plays his role as a physical shut-down defenseman on the right side incredibly well. Teams need players like Pastrnak and McAvoy to win the Stanley Cup; they also need players like Carlo, who fans can count on to show up and consistently contribute year in and year out. The Bruins are fortunate to have a player like him locked down for another three years, and they can bet on him to be a steady presence again in 2024-25.
