Leaf’s defenceman Brandon Carlo is heading back to Toronto as the rest team prepares in Florida for their upcoming game Tuesday night against the Panthers.
While speaking to reporters after a practice on Monday morning, Head Coach Craig Berube confirmed Carlo is experiencing setbacks in his lower-body injury recovery and will return to Toronto for further evaluation.
Craig Berube says Brandon Carlo has suffered a setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury and returned to Toronto
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) December 1, 2025
They hope to have more information in the next 24 hours @TSN_Sports
Despite other formerly injured players such as Simon Benoit hitting the ice for practice on Monday morning, Brandon Carlo is making his way back to Toronto to be further assessed by doctors regarding his injury. Although it seemed as if his recovery was progressing, an unfortunate turn of events has set him back.
The 29-year-old defenceman was originally injured on November 13 in a game against the Los Angeles Kings and was placed on injury reserve. He played 19:44 minutes that night before suffering the lower-body injury. Before the injury, he played 18 games this season with two assists and no goals.
After a month of injury complications with other players, this Carlo update is the last thing Toronto needs as they try to turn their season around and continue the momentum of their 7-2 Pittsburgh win. Although the majority of these players have finally returned, the inconsistency of lines and potential underlying injuries stands as an obstacle for Toronto.
Leafs’ injuries in November
Matthew Knies - Lower body
Anthony Stolarz - Upper body
Marshall Rifai - Wrist
Auston Matthews - Lower body
Chris Tanev - Upper body
Brandon Carlo - Lower body
Tuesday night, the Leafs will take on the Panthers in Florida with, once again, a shuffled lineup as projected by Monday morning’s practice.
Here are the lines the Leafs used at today's practice
— TheLeafsNation (@TLNdc) December 1, 2025
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In more hopeful news, Oliver Ekman-Larsson practiced with the team Monday morning after leaving Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh with an upper-body injury, and is set to play alongside Morgan Riley on the blue line.
Anthony Stolarz is also still out with his upper-body injury and has not played since November 11 in their game against the Boston Bruins. The goaltender's injury timeline was originally labelled as short-term.
Toronto will have to continue to juggle injuries and shaken lineups until the team is healthy again.