Brandon Carlo admitted that being with the Maple Leafs came with a bunch of criticism despite his best attempts to try and ignore the chatter for over a decade.
Carlo was traded earlier this summer as part of the major lineup turnover the Maple Leafs went through. Sent to St. Louis for the 73rd and 76th picks in the 2026 Draft, he's now looking for a new start over in the Western Conference.
But his time in Toronto didn't exactly come with rainbows and sunshine, as Toronto paid a heavy price to acquire Carlo from Boston - Fraser Minten, a conditional first-round pick and a fourth-rounder - so expectations were high from the moment he arrived.
Carlo avoided the place most NHL players hear criticism - Toronto brought it to him anyway
That led fans to get a little more frustrated with Carlo than they expected, and while he tried his best to ignore it - he couldn't help it. Admitting on the Cam and Strick Podcast that the chatter finally got to him, Carlo at least took solace in the fact that it helped him gain some new perspective:
I'm not on social media or anything, so I get just the little snippets, but there was some reporters and things like that in Toronto that definitely took some moments to make it known and put it on my radar a little bit.
Overall, I think it just helped me develop thicker skin, and I'm thankful for the experience, like I said. Just to kind of go through that is good, it's a good learning experience.
While Carlo certainly would have gotten his fair share of fan distaste if he had a bad gamer given that he was in Boston, it is nowhere near the level of spotlight that he had in Toronto. Carlo was seen as someone who was an expensive asset who needed to level out the blueline but did anything but.
Granted, he dealt with a fluky injury caused by a reaction to a previous surgery from years prior but when he came back it was't exactly like he was able to help steer Toronto into a playoff spot. Combine that with the insane price the team paid to acquire him at the 2025 Trade Deadline and you can see why that backlash came swift and loud from Leafs Nation.
Carlo left Toronto saying the market gave him thicker skin - not that it drove him out
But if there is one positive that Carlo can take out of his entire Toronto tenure is the fact that he became a much stronger player mentally. He developed a thicker skin and won't be as bothered when criticism comes around.
That's a benefit that a lot of athletes in general could enjoy the luxury of, and Carlo being so adamantly against being online means that even if he does hear or see snippets of criticism then he can just continue to do what he does - stay offline and ignore things.
It also gives him a much thicker skin on the ice, as he knows that he won't be bothered if people try and put him down. He's likely heard worse from the Maple Leafs fanbase over the past two years, so it's going to just be in one ear and out the other for Carlo.
His time in Toronto was nothing special and there was a lot more that was expected of Carlo that never came to fruition however he can at least leave town knowing that he became a much stronger player internally thanks to the intense criticism of the Maple Leafs fanbase.
Was Brandon Carlo a failure in Toronto?
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