Carlo's Injury Status Is the Hole in St. Louis's Offseason Plan

I've written about this twice already, and the situation hasn't changed: Brandon Carlo is still out, no timeline, training camp approaching. At some point the repetition becomes the story.

The Blues traded two third-round picks to Toronto specifically to address a defense that allowed 3.1 goals per game over the final 10 games of last season — up sharply from the prior stretch. Carlo was the answer to that problem. He's a physical, stay-at-home presence who was supposed to bring some structure to a back end that was leaking badly when it mattered most. Justin Faulk and Philip Broberg logged heavy minutes all year, and Cam Fowler was a minus-20 on the season. The idea was that Carlo would take some of that burden and provide a different kind of reliability. None of that works if he isn't on the ice.

The forward rebuild has real pieces in place — Robert Thomas, Connor McMichael locked up long-term, Mason McTavish coming over from Anaheim. The offense has a shape to it. The defense, without Carlo, is still the same group that gave up goals in bunches when the games got tight. My read is that if he misses significant time to start the season, the Blues are right back where they were: a team that can score but can't quite hold a lead.