By Jordan Long
The Boston Bruins play their first preseason game tomorrow when they travel to face the Philadelphia Flyers. Their first regular season game is on October 3rd in Dallas[JL1] . Boston finally reached a contract with restricted free agent defenseman Brandon Carlo for 2-years worth $2.85 million a season.
Carlo is young at 22 years old. He has played 3 years in the NHL, all with the Boston Bruins. Carlo can help this team on offense but isn’t an effective offensive defenseman at the NHL level to this point in his career with only 8 goals and 24 assists for total of 32 points. He has room to develop his scoring ability.
Carlo’s strength is defense. He can skate backwards to be in position to block shots and end scoring chances. Carlo’s speed helps him knock skaters off the puck ending scoring opportunities for the opponents. He can also poke check the puck which allows him to steal it. This helps the Bruins move the puck into the offensive zone
The Bruins wanted to keep him so he can improve his game. Two seasons are decent start. According to ESPN, Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney said, “I don’t think you put a ceiling on what he’s capable of doing. But he also has to live up to his own ideals of what he does really well and, obviously, shutting down and taking responsibility at the end of games, close out games, protect leads, block shots, to do the things that other players might not be as willing to do, he does really well, and then allowing his game to grow offensively.”
The Bruins are hoping his game grows in the NHL. He can continue to learn from veteran Zdeno Chara this season, developing his offensive game more. Once he does that, Carlo could be one of the top offensive defensemen for this team. For now, he has 2 more years in Boston. Once this contract is up, hopefully the Boston Bruins see enough growth in his game to agree to a long-term contract with him.
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