Rafael Fiziev Getty
As part of the monumental offseason of change for the Toronto Maple Leafs, defenseman Brandon Carlo was traded by general manager John Chayka to the St. Louis Blues.
Carlo was sent to the Blues in return for the 73rd and 76th overall picks in the 2026 NHL Draft.
And in his first game with his new club, Carlo was not only thrown out for a violent on-ice incident, but he could be facing some steep punishment from the National Hockey League Department of Player Safety.
GettyRafael Fiziev
During Friday's contest against the Dallas Stars, Carlo leveled forward Roope Hintz with a knee-on-knee hit that resulted in a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct.
The good news for the Stars is that Hintz, who was playing his first regular season game since March, eventually returned to the game.
"Feeling fine," Hintz said after the game . "I think I got a little lucky there. At first I thought something happened really bad. But I got back there pretty quick."
Understandably, fellow defenseman Miro Heiskanen said that it was a dirty play on the part of Carlo.
"Not great to see," Heiskanen said. "That was a dirty hit, and you don't want to see that happen. Hopefully, he's good and not bigger issues or anything. But it was great to see him back pretty quickly after that."
Carlo, who has also played for the Bruins, has never been suspended during his NHL playing career.
Not long after he was acquired by the Blues, Carlo made it clear that he enjoyed his time playing with the Maple Leafs, who traded for him from the Bruins at the 2025 NHL Deadline.
"Overall, as an experience as a whole, being able to play in one of the biggest markets in all of hockey, especially within Canada, I just tried to embrace it," Carlo said. "We won the first round, which was exciting. It was a lot of fun to go over a couple of those hurdles. Being in a big city like that, I tried to embrace it with my family. There were certain things like going to outdoor rinks, I always wanted to have growing up. We don't have much of that in Colorado, and we had plenty of that this year with my kids."
"There are so many good things that I can still draw positives from, even though there were some things that I don't feel like I was necessarily at my best, or that we had the greatest year, and I had some injuries and it didn't work out the way I hoped," Carlo said. "But overall, I like to try and focus on the positive."
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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