Carlo feeling at home with Maple Leafs after trade from Bruins 

TORONTO -- Brandon Carlo, all 6-foot-5 of him, stood in the back row wearing a wide grin. It was team photo day Tuesday and there he was, on the Scotiabank Arena ice with his new teammates, finally feeling like he was settling in, like he truly was a Toronto Maple Leaf.

Cue the sigh of relief.

"I mean, talk about getting thrown in the hot water there for a second," the defenseman said. "It's been like, what, nine days since I played my first game with these guys with Toronto? It seems like a lot more. So much has happened.

"Yeah, it seems so long ago that we faced Colorado in that first game. Now we're playing them again, and I feel a lot more comfortable than I did that night, more comfortable overall at being a Maple Leaf."

He has reason to feel that way.

Less than two weeks after he made his Maple Leafs debut in a 7-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena in Denver on March 8, he'll go up against the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar again, this time at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, SN, TVAS).

It's all been a whirlwind for him, to be sure.

On March 7, right before the NHL Trade Deadline of 3 p.m. ET, Carlo was acquired from the Boston Bruins for a first-round selection in the 2026 NHL Draft (top-five protected), a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and forward Fraser Minten.

Carlo has two seasons remaining on a six-year, $24.6 million contract ($4.1 million average annual value) he signed with Boston on July 14, 2021, and Boston retained 15 percent of his salary.

He immediately caught a flight to join his new team in Denver, where it was getting set to play the Avalanche in front of a national television audience on "Hockey Night in Canada." Sitting in the seat behind him was his former Bruins teammate Charlie Coyle, who'd just been traded to Colorado by Boston and would play against Carlo in his Avalanche debut.

"That was kind of funny," Carlo said when asked about having Coyle on the same flight. "But it was also a nice comfort as well, going through the process with somebody I was comfortable with. We had some good communication on the flight. He'd been traded once before, so just seeing the way he was handling himself was a good thing for me to look up and to look at.

"Great friend, great person and someone who handled things really well. So, I learned."

With his father, Lenny, joining relatives and friends for the 70-mile trip north to Denver to watch Brandon play for the first time in Maple Leafs blue-and-white (Carlo was born in Colorado Springs), it didn't take long for Carlo to get acclimatized, albeit in the most chaotic of scenarios.

In his first 20 minutes with Toronto, he was on the ice for four goals, two by each team. By the end of the game, he had six blocked shots in a team-high 22:04, an indication of the faith his new coach, Craig Berube, had in him.

"I love playing against the top guys, and they have a couple of them on their team," Carlo said. "And it was honestly a nice comfort to be able to know that I could see my family after the game with all the mayhem going on. But overall, I've just been trying to implement myself as much as I can right away, getting comfortable with the guys. Everybody here has been super nice, super kind, and that's made the transition a bit easier.

"Like I said, I'm settling in now, I enjoy being here, I enjoy being part of this team. So, each day has gotten better in terms of not feeling out of place at times, I guess you could say, just because it's been a big change. Overall, then, feeling pretty good."

Playing primarily alongside puck-moving defenseman Morgan Rielly, Carlo has one assist, is plus-1 and is averaging 19:20 of ice time in five games with Toronto. In the process he's earned the trust of Berube, who's seen Carlo start to feel at home, especially defensively.

"He's getting more comfortable with his partner, that's for sure," the Maple Leafs coach said. "But he's also getting more comfortable not only just at the rink, but outside the rink. And he's getting more comfortable with our systems and how we want to play."

Count Toronto goalie Joseph Woll as a Carlo fan already, especially after a 6-2 victory against the Calgary Flames on Monday that kept the Maple Leafs (40-24-3) tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Florida Panthers.

"He's a big body back there, blocks shots, makes the right plays and breaks the puck out well," Woll said. "I think he's just a guy that does everything right. He's not the flashiest player, but I think my favorites are the guys who do those things right and get the puck out of the zone.

"It's been great to see."