Brandon Carlo suffers injury setback serious enough to leave Maple Leafs road trip

Brandon Carlo has been out of action for the Maple Leafs since Nov. 13 and hadn't found his way back on the ice on a consistent basis just yet, with no indication of when we can expect him to return to game action.

However, he suffered a recent setback according to head coach Craig Berube, and it was significant enough for the team to send him home from their road trip, leaving his timeline even more in limbo.

Berube spoke to reporters after Toronto's practice in Florida on Monday and wasn't too hopeful about a future timeline for the defenseman.

He said:

It's rough news not only for Carlo, but for the Maple Leafs who are already fairly thin on the right side due to Chris Tanev also missing time, and their need for a right-handed puck-moving defenseman is more crucial than ever especially with this recent setback for Carlo.

For his slow return to the ice, all the progress made is now seemingly wiped out and he'll need to recover from whatever is bothering him now as well as what's kept him out. It's a shame since we saw him practicing earlier, and now we just have a lot more questions than answers.

Berube is always fairly reserved when it comes to detailing injuries, and with Carlo it's no different, but his wait and see tone reflected the reality that he's lost another body for an undetermined period and now has to lean more on depth pieces like Philippe Myers.

This is a banged-up blueline, there's no two ways around it. Chris Tanev is still reportedly a long ways away from returning, Oliver Ekman-Larsson is still feeling the effects of last game even though he's back in practice, and now Carlo's setback gives Toronto very little options.

Right now one of the team's main focus is trying to add more puck moving on the back end, but that can only happen when you have a proper shutdown core intact, and right now they are missing that. So it's more about survival right now than trying to thrive.

There's no true seventh or eighth defenceman now; Myers, Dakota Mermis, and even Simon Benoit can be considered crucial to the lineup right now, and with Toronto rarely turning to their minor-league system for immediate help, this is the reality -- Toronto needs those depth options to be at their absolute best.

For all the talk about Toronto's need for offense on the blueline, they are struggling to keep a proper shutdown group in tact. This setback doesn't just hurt Carlo, but also Toronto's chances of fielding the lineup they want and shines a light on just how thin their self-professed 'deep' group really is.