Player Discussion Brandon Carlo

[Colt.45Orr]

Bruins Draft Brandon Carlo 37th overall (2015) TRI-CITY -WHL

Looks like I was dead on about this one when I said the Bruins scouts wanted this guy pretty bad (pats self on back).

AWESOME PICK!!

6'5 and CAN SKATE! Could be a bigger Staal for us on the back-end in a few years!

REDLINE SAYS:
We love this huge blue-liner’s combination of size and skating ability. Wide base with a long stride and surprisingly good four-way mobility. Just so big and increasingly smooth in all his movements. Has excellent speed moving forward with the puck, and likes to skate it out of the defensive zone. His overall footwork and pivots have im- proved dramatically. Plays a smart defensive game and picks the right time to pinch and keep the puck alive in the offensive zone. A key penalty killer who blocks a ton of shots. Also helps on the PP getting pucks to the net and creating chances. Enormous wingspan and uses his reach effectively breaking up plays with an active stick. Makes hard hits on the back end. Doesn’t fight much, but when he does, has proven he can handle all challengers. Won’t produce many points, but contributes in other ways that don’t always show up on stat sheets.

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[BB88]

I have a feeling that Carlo will be the D player who makes an impact 1st.

 

[KrejciMVP]

6 picks in the 1st two rounds, impressive. This will help Krejci and Bergeron for the duration of their contracts

 

[DitClapper]

Carlo's nasty. Good pick.

 

[BruinDust]

Yee-haw a McQuaid clone, albeit with slightly higher-skill level.

At least he wasn't a reach at 37.

 

[DitClapper]

Yee-haw a McQuaid clone, albeit with slightly higher-skill level.

At least he wasn't a reach at 37.

Disagree. Carlo has legit top 4 upside, and was easily one of our best picks.

 

[CDJ]

Yee-haw a McQuaid clone, albeit with slightly higher-skill level.

At least he wasn't a reach at 37.

Not even close.

 

[R S]

My thoughts on him:http://whl-from-above.blogspot.ca/2015/05/final-whl-rankings-2015-nhl-draft.html

#8 Brandon Carlo

Team: Tri-City Americans
Position: D
Shoots: R
Height: 6’5
Weight: 196
GP: 63
Goals: 4
Assists: 21
Points: 25
Pts/Gm: 0.39
PIM: 90

Player Analysis: Brandon Carlo is a towering and surprisingly smooth-skating blueliner for the Tri-City Americans…is a very good skater for someone in a 6’5 and nearly 200 pound frame…owns a powerful stride with decent footwork and strong side to side mobility…uses his impressive skating ability and range to cover a lot of ground defensively, possessing fairly good gap control in 1 on 1’s…is an imposing player with an impressive wingspan…has an edge to his game, does a lot of talking and uses his stick behind the play…isn’t overly physical on a shift to shift basis but will hit to hurt when necessary…could stand to increase the overall mean in his game as he has the size to handle himself when challenged…seems to pride himself in how he patrols his own zone…not afraid to use his mobility to get up the ice and help push the pace, although it’s not a consistent staple within his game…passes the puck hard and accurately…possesses a very hard slap shot when he gets it away…owns a hard wrister but his release could still use a bit of zip…has competent footwork while manning the offensive line, allowing himself to get open for shooting opportunities…

while he has some raw tools offensively none of them are high-end and all need further refining if he wants to be any form of an offensive NHLer…puck management (handling it and receiving passes) are rather inconsistent but do exist at times…his stats do not reflect a potential 1st round selection, something that I expect him to be despite me ranking him more as a mid-2nd…his size and length give him a major advantage at this level so it’s important to remember that part of his game will be neutralized somewhat at the next level…his combination of size and mobility leads me to believe that he is more NHL-ready than a lot of players in this draft class…his skating style and size reminds me an awful lot of Colorado blueliner Erik Johnson, even though I don’t see him having that same offensive upside that Johnson does…saw time in the Americans top 4 all season, but rarely played alongside fellow draft-eligible defender Parker Wotherspoon…most consistent partners this season included Dylan Coghlan and Tyler Morrison…he was also counted on to play top penalty killing minutes while also seeing some time on a second powerplay unit at times…was a member of Team USA at this year’s World Juniors…is a late-1996 born player…was T-10th in points among first-year draft-eligible WHL defenders this year, also finishing 10th among that group in PPG rate…either scored or assisted on 15.05% of all Tri-City goals during the regular season, the 8th highest such mark among all first-year draft-eligible WHL defencemen…

was a 10th round selection by the Tri-City Americans at the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft…overall I think with peak progression Carlo will be a 25-30 point blueliner in the NHL who kills penalties and plays with a bit of an edge, fitting in as an above-average #4 type on a playoff squad…if his offensive game fails to progress to that level, he will likely end up more as a bottom-pairing banger who can still anchor a penalty kill and handle a basic outlet…he was inside my top 5 WHL players for the entire season until I combined his on-ice production numbers with his scouting report via my ranking formula, which subsequently dropped him several spots…for me, while I rank him more as a middle of the 2nd round type of guy, I feel he is a very legit threat to be picked in the 20-30 range of the 1st round…while his offensive upside may not be as high as some of the guys ranked behind him on this list, I would classify him as one of the more safe selections from the WHL this year, in the classic use of that word…that “safe” classification is an area which helps give him that one spot edge over his teammate from Tri-City Parker Wotherspoon in this ranking…

 

[BruinDust]

Disagree. Carlo has legit top 4 upside, and was easily one of our best picks.

Never said he didn't have Top 4 upside.

But you read his scouting report and he's a better-skating McQuaid.

Big guy, plays hard, average first-pass, limited offensive potential.

I don't hate the pick, actually of the 6 made in Rds 1 and 2 it's probably the only pick out of those 6 I actually don't mind.

 

[TCL40]

He sounds like he would be a good stay at home type to pair with a good luck mover/offensive type (what a shame we gave one of those away yesterday).

I like his size-6'5" and almost 200 lbs is pretty good for a draft player. He should gain some muscle mass and maybe more height.

He does sound kind of like a better skating McQuaid but frankly I wish the team had a better skating McQuaid on the roster.

I think Miller sounded kind of like a Boychuk lite and this kid sounds like a better McQuaid.

 

[CDJ]

Never said he didn't have Top 4 upside.

But you read his scouting report and he's a better-skating McQuaid.

Big guy, plays hard, average first-pass, limited offensive potential.

I don't hate the pick, actually of the 6 made in Rds 1 and 2 it's probably the only pick out of those 6 I actually don't mind.

The big difference is Carlo can actually skate very well and Adam (god love him) propels himself neck first into the boards tripping over his own feet once a season. Pretty big difference to me.

 

[Bi Coastal Bawse*]

Probably the ONLY pick I am excited about but haven't looked much into the others yet.

 

[Gator Mike]

Better skating, more skilled Adam McQuaid sounds like a pretty good defenseman to me.

 

[LouJersey]

Probably the ONLY pick I am excited about but haven't looked much into the others yet.

You seem like a smart guy, once you read up on them you will be legit excited.

 

[Bi Coastal Bawse*]

You seem like a smart guy, once you read up on them you will be legit excited.

Been at work all day & asked if there was some write up on all the picks and got nothing.

IDK where I would go or start on google to find anything.

I mean our #13 pick and this guy have me excited a bit, but the others I hope you're right about.

 

[ODAAT]

Looks like I was dead on about this one when I said the Bruins scouts wanted this guy pretty bad (pats self on back).

AWESOME PICK!!

6'5 and CAN SKATE! Could be a bigger Staal for us on the back-end in a few years!

REDLINE SAYS:
We love this huge blue-liner’s combination of size and skating ability. Wide base with a long stride and surprisingly good four-way mobility. Just so big and increasingly smooth in all his movements. Has excellent speed moving forward with the puck, and likes to skate it out of the defensive zone. His overall footwork and pivots have im- proved dramatically. Plays a smart defensive game and picks the right time to pinch and keep the puck alive in the offensive zone. A key penalty killer who blocks a ton of shots. Also helps on the PP getting pucks to the net and creating chances. Enormous wingspan and uses his reach effectively breaking up plays with an active stick. Makes hard hits on the back end. Doesn’t fight much, but when he does, has proven he can handle all challengers. Won’t produce many points, but contributes in other ways that don’t always show up on stat sheets.

sounds promising, any idea with that kind of all around package why he wasn`t picked in the first round? I`m not in any way contesting the pick but it seems like he wouldn`t have been a stretch for a team to grab in the 1st? Maybe just because of this being such a deep draft?

 

[HanktheHammer*]

I like the Carlo kid at the Cherry/Orr Top Prospects game in the new year. He showed a good physical grit to his game in a Junior all-star game.

 

[Man Rocket]

My money is on him or Debrusk to be the 1st of the draft class who plays a game for us

 

[Dellstrom]

I like Carlo. I thought someone would reach on him in the 1st round, there was a lot of talk about that.

He's a big dman and he looks relatively safe to make the NHL at some point in time. Looking forward to it.

 

[DBL]

This guy starts developing any type of an offensive game...jackpot!!

But think that's why he dropped, the lack of offense. As of now, he predicts to be a 5-20pt shutdown Dman.

 

[Colt.45Orr]

sounds promising, any idea with that kind of all around package why he wasn`t picked in the first round? I`m not in any way contesting the pick but it seems like he wouldn`t have been a stretch for a team to grab in the 1st? Maybe just because of this being such a deep draft?

Deep draft. Some teams (like the Bruins) had him ranked in the early to mid 20s in 1st round.

 

[PacificNWBruin]

Liked this pick. I was hoping the Bruins wouldn't reach on him. Glad they got him at #37 though. Feel like he has higher offensive ability/potential then some think. Seems smart defensively and has great skating ability. Hopefully he adds 10-20 lbs of muscle on that frame and keeps his mobility. His passing seemed to progress between the couple of games I watched him play this past season.

 

[PB37]

Looking at him, he seems to have the frame to be able to pack on 20-30 pounds over the next 5 years. Best defensive dman in this draft? Nice pick.

 

[Mathews28]

Central scouting had him at 25 overall in their last rankings. Good pick and I knew it from the start. People just need to come down and look at after the dust clears. This could be a tremendous acquisition.

 

[neelyforpresident]

I think once people stop overreacting they'll see we came away from this draft with some great prospects, including Carlo.