The Bruins and defenseman Brandon Carlo have agreed to a six-year extension, the team announced Wednesday. The deal carries an annual cap hit of $4.1 million.
"The Bruins are very pleased to have extended Brandon on a long-term deal," said general manager Don Sweeney. "Brandon is a player who has grown into a foundational defenseman with our team while also emerging as an important leader on and off the ice."
Carlo, 24, was a restricted free agent entering this offseason. A second-round pick back in 2015, Carlo broke into the NHL quickly, playing all 82 regular-season games as a rookie in 2016-17.
After playing next to Zdeno Chara earlier in his career, Carlo has emerged as the right-side anchor on the Bruins’ second pairing and one of their top penalty-killers, playing 18-21 minutes per game in all five of his NHL seasons.
However, Carlo’s career has also been marred by injuries, specifically concussions. He suffered one in the final game of the regular season as a rookie and missed Boston’s playoff series against the Ottawa Senators as a result.
Carlo is suspected to have suffered another in 2020 just before the season was suspended, and then he had two confirmed concussions this past season.
The first came in early March when Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson hit him in the head. Carlo spent the night in the hospital and wound up missing nearly a month as a result. Wilson was suspended seven games for the hit.
The second came in the second round of the playoffs when a clean hit from New York Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck resulted in Carlo’s head hitting the glass. Carlo missed the remainder of the series.
After the season, Carlo said he wasn’t concerned about his long-term future despite the worrying concussion history.
“No, not at this point, not at all,” Carlo said. “I think this year was obviously a struggle through these injuries. It’s no fun, but I’m not going to sit here and get discouraged or think that my career is heading down a wrong path because of a couple concussions. I hope this is the last one of my career and hopefully I can play as long as possible, but for how I’ve recovered from these, I don’t feel like there’s any issue there.”
Health will obviously remain a question for Carlo, but there’s no doubt he can be a mainstay and an asset on the Bruins’ blue line for years to come if he can stay healthy. This deal locks him up through his prime years at an affordable price.
Carlo has also started to emerge as a team leader and was recognized as such with an alternate captain’s “A” for a few games this season, including the NHL Outdoors game at Lake Tahoe.
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