Brandon Carlo had himself a night at TD Garden Monday, one that hinted, heavily at times, that he soon could be headed to many more with the Bruins.

“Arguably our best defenseman,’’ said Bruins assistant coach Bruce Cassidy following a 3-2 preseason shootout loss to the Blue Jackets.

September is often a time of hyperbole in the NHL, like that of 1997 that had Joe Thornton pegged as the surefire Rookie of the Year after only his first shift at Wilmington. Jumbo Joe went on to log a lackluster 3-4—7 in 55 games his freshman year, and it was fellow Black-and-Gold newbie Sergei Samsonov who ran off the with the Calder Trophy.

Carlo, who won’t turn 20 until November, presents a decidedly different case. He has both the frame (6 feet 5 inches, 202 pounds) and game for the Boston management and coaching staff to think he could be NHL-ready right now, perhaps able to eat up some of the heavy minutes consumed in recent seasons by blue line horse Dennis Seidenberg (his deal bought out in June).

All of that is a big leap, especially these days in a league trending ever faster and therefore putting increasing pressure on every club’s six-pack of defensemen. It’s a game that can eat young blue liners alive, far more than forwards, if only for the simple fact that a back liner’s boo-boos often result in pucks deposited in nets. Underperforming forwards typically only get moved down in the pecking order, their ice time reduced, their shaky play protected by coaches who are smart enough not to put them on the ice in critical situations.

On Monday, Carlo was all over the ice — usually in a good, intelligent way — and picked up a key assist when his hurry-up shot from the blue line was knocked home by fellow newbie Danton Heinen for the tying (2-2) goal.

Carlo logged a beefy 20:16 in ice time, including 92 seconds of penalty-killing duty, and squeezed off a total five shots, two that made it to the net. He landed a couple of smacks on Blue Jackets sweaters. He was involved, engaged, and his skating skills proved as advertised, in lockstep with NHL standard.

Doug Hamilton, the one-time wunderkind on the Boston back line, was a better skater when he showed up here as a 19-year-old in the 2012 season. Carlo is more physically developed than Hamilton at the same age, and plays with more, shall we say, hockey moxie. He may not be the 40-point producer that Hamilton, now 23, has become. But it’s early, and his game has an impressive foundation.

“I felt like I was moving pretty well,’’ said Carlo. “That was something I definitely wanted to show I could do a little better. Overall, I felt pretty good.’’

Drafted in June 2015, in the same teenage grab bag that had the Bruins select first-rounders Jakub Zboril (D), Jake DeBrusk (F), and Zach Senyshyn (F) with picks 13-14-15, Carlo was the 11th blue liner taken among the first 37 picks. Only one, ex-Boston College Eagle Noah Hanifin, played in the NHL last season, collecting 22 points in 79 games.

Out of 211 picks total in the 2015 draft, in fact, Hanifin was the lone defenseman to see substantial playing time in the NHL. Again, it is not a position for on-the-job training. Even Ray Bourque and Brad McCrimmon, who joined the Black-and-Gold party together in the autumn of 1979, were given some elbow room to get themselves comfy back there. But that was before the era of NHL Indy, which has every bench spilling out five fresh, turbocharged racers every 35 or 40 seconds.

On Monday, Carlo was both fleet afoot and of mind, the latter particularly evident on the shot he made at the start of the third that Heinen deflected home. Working high above the right wing circle, Carlo stepped right into a Seth Griffith feed and, rather than wind up for the big 320-yard tee shot, he dropped low and sent a snap shot sailing directly for the net.

“That’s something I worked on over the summer,’’ noted Carlo, who spends off­seasons at home in Colorado Springs. “It’s something [general manager Don Sweeney] wanted me to do better. I felt like snapping it off was the best thing I could do — and it worked out.’’

Cutting right-left through the slot, Heinen had his first goal for the Bruins. Jimmy Hayes had the other Boston goal, off a nice feed from another newbie, DeBrusk.

“Just get it to the net as fast as I can,’’ said Carlo. “Overall, that’s what I want to do on that play, but also you always have the option to [pass] low [in the zone] — but the better option is to get it on net if you can.’’

The play fit to a T what the coaching staff has emphasized from the start of training camp last week. They want to up the tempo, particularly from the back line, and that means more than boosting the skating speed. They are hoping to see players who move through plays quickly, with authority, and mentally process plays at the same speed or faster. On night one, Carlo capably handled all of it.

“I can only think of one time that he kind of threw the puck away,’’ said Cassidy. “He got caught in the middle of a change, ended up on the wrong side [of the ice]. Not a bad turnover, but he could have made a better decision. I mean, when you handle the puck that much in a game, that’s pretty good.’’

Good. And by the looks of him, Carlo is only getting better, and quickly.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.