Report: Vancouver Canucks interested in Bruins’ defenceman Brandon Carlo

The Vancouver Canucks are interested in Boston Bruins defenceman Brandon Carlo, according Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. On the Monday morning edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Friedman said the following during a conversation with Jeff Marek about how the Bruins could be interested in making a big splash at the deadline to go all in one last time with their ageing core, which features multiple players on team-friendly deals.

“I know Brandon Carlo’s name has been out there as someone as somebody Vancouver is interested in,” said Friedman. “I don’t have any evidence to believe at this time that the Bruins are interested in doing that. I’m not convinced yet that the Bruins will do that, I’m not sure about that at this time.”

This isn’t the first time Carlo has been connected to the Canucks, either. The 26-year-old defenceman was mentioned last week by Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali — The Team as somebody the Canucks could be interested in.

Carlo has one goal and seven assists through 46 games with the Bruins so far this season. Boston originally selected the right-shot defenceman with the 37th overall pick of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. With 449 games of NHL experience, the 6’6 right-shot defenceman plays a defence-first game and would instantly become the Canucks’ best option to play with Quinn Hughes if they were able to acquire him.

Captain Bo Horvat has been connected to the league-leading Bruins basically all season long, but as Friedman mentioned, Carlo may be hard to pry from the Bruins. And even if they were willing to part ways with him, should the Canucks be structuring big trades around players who will be turning 27 early on next season? If he’s a complimentary piece coming alongside a first round pick or a player under 22 years old, then it might make more sense for the Canucks to pull the trigger on a deal involving Carlo.

Recently, we examined every notable trade chip that the Canucks could acquire in a Bo Horvat trade. You can read that story in full by clicking here.

For the Boston Bruins, we listed the following assets:

Retool pieces: Brandon Carlo (26yo-RD) or Marc McLaughlin (23yo-C).

Rebuild pieces: Fabian Lysell (20yo-RW), Matthew Poitras (18yo-C), Mason Lohrei (22yo-LD), John Beecher (C), Brett Harrison (19yo-C), Ryan Mast (20yo-RD), 2023 1st round pick or 2024 1st round pick.

Would you like to see the Canucks make a play for Brandon Carlo? Let us know in the comments section below!