Copyright The Boston Globe
All that, added Chara, asked to reflex on his legacy, “probably is what I’d like to be known for most.” No one, especially the 19-year-old version of Chara, could have dreamed of Hall of Fame glory and $90 million-plus in career earnings, when he first landed in North America in the fall of 1996. He was, at best, a 6-foot-9-inch curiosity ― a project, a strapping, eager kid from Slovakia, bursting with energy but virtually absent any hockey pedigree. For all the belief he had in himself, Chara signed that fall with WHL Prince George (British Columbia) yet to have anyone beyond his father believe he one day could play pro hockey. As a growing teenager, frequently sprouting up by 2 inches a year, he was constantly urged, by friends and often by his hockey coaches, to give up hockey for basketball. Even for a kid who grew up idolizing Michael Jordan and the Bulls, the pleadings to try a different sport landed on his ear as taunts. “That was very hard,” Chara said. “I didn’t want to please them by quitting. I felt like if I quit, then I was just letting them win, that they were right. I wanted to prove them wrong.” It was Prince George that changed it all, Chara arriving with the junior club only weeks after the Islanders took a flyer on him with the 56th pick in the 1996 NHL Draft. Until then, every team he played on, including those in his hometown of Trencin, viewed his size as a liability. “Until that point, it was always, ‘Well, your size is no good for hockey. You are too tall, too big, too lengthy,’ ” said Chara, who’ll enter the Hall with the most games played (1,680) by any defenseman in NHL history. “Then I arrived in WHL, and all of a sudden people were saying, ‘No, this is great!’ I started hearing the complete opposite of everything I had heard till that point. It was like, ‘OK, awesome, you are big, tall, strong, long stick, physical, can fight.’ All I kept hearing was, ‘Get out there!’ ” It was, Chara recalled, “this little spark of fire that, for me, turned into fireworks.” He kept getting out there. Chara is one of eight members of the Hall’s Class of 2025 who’ll be formally inducted Monday night, along with fellow NHL players Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, and Alexander Mogilny. Legendary Boston University coach Jack Parker also will be enshrined, along with Team USA’s Brianna Decker and Team Canada’s Jennifer Botterill and Daniele Sauvageau. All eight inductees will receive their rings and traditional blue blazers during a brief ceremony Saturday afternoon. The televised induction will be held Monday night. Chara, much like his captaincy days, has been asked to speak first. He was still editing, reworking his words in the hours prior to leaving his home in the western suburbs. All inductees have been asked to keep their comments short (six minutes) ― and short is a challenge when you’re 6-9, with 24 years of NHL service, and with more ice time recorded (39,485 minutes, 19 seconds) than anyone in the game’s history. “Yeah, I’m over,” said a smiling Chara, asked if he practiced and timed out his speech. “It’s not something you just want to hurry through, like, ‘Yada-yada-yada.’ And I know they’re not going to play me off with music, like the Oscars. They say six minutes, but I think they’re counting around eight, hopefully.” The Hall of Fame honor comes as the third major celebration of Chara’s career in recent months. Over the summer, in separate ceremonies, he was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame and the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame. The Bruins recently announced they’ll retire his No. 33 to the TD Garden rafters in a Jan. 15 pregame ceremony. He’ll be up there among other legendary defensemen Eddie Shore, Bobby Orr, Dit Clapper, Lionel Hitchman, and Ray Bourque. “I am so thankful and so grateful,” Chara said. In a perfect world, Chara acknowledged, the pace of all the accolades would have been spread out, allowing him time to savor the milestones. He understands legacy awards and halls of fame run by their own clocks, but as a self-acknowledged “late bloomer,” he would have been fine if the post-career bouquets, like his game, needed more time on the ice. “I am moving from one event to the next one,” said Chara, repeatedly expressing his thanks and gratitude. “I get one done and then it’s time to get the next speech ready. I am excited, of course, but I am in this rotation of repeatability, instead of doing one thing, getting super high for it, then letting your emotions come down, and relax.” Chara’s Hall of Fame guest list will be topped by wife Tatiana, their twin 9-year-old sons, Zack and Ben, and their daughter Elliz, 16. The boys are hockey players, but forwards, often coached over the years by their defenseman father. Elliz is an accomplished violin player, according to her proud dad, and also specializes in the 3-mile run with her high school cross-country team. Meanwhile, Chara continues to expand his newfound advisory role with the Bruins. He also is busy with myriad business endeavors, including Castable, a startup venture about to launch that he co-founded with Brandeis grad Peter Gladstone via Harvard’s Innovation Lab. An online broadcast-like platform featuring athletes, artists, and other celebrities, Castable will invite users to pay a small fee for the opportunity to listen as “Casters” comment on games or other forms of live entertainment. Now some 25 pounds leaner than his playing weight (250), Chara, an ardent bicyclist for decades, has become a long-distance runner since playing his last game in April 2022. He is in constant training for marathons, triathlons, and Ironman events. Next up: the 26.2-milers this spring in Tokyo and Boston. The pandemic changed Chara’s diet, mainly, he said, because many of his preferred restaurants went out of business. After years of being strictly vegan, he now eats “everything,” including meat and fish. “I’m back normal,” said Chara. If he’s having, say, a baked potato, he’ll top it with butter, a luxury he denied himself during his playing career. “Yes, all the running now,” he said, “I need the fat.” Then there’s his sweet tooth, one that in his playing days had Chara toting a recipe for his favorite Slovak treat, Rýžový nákyp, for kitchen staff at the team’s hotel to prepare. It’s a bundle of rice, fruit, cottage cheese, and egg whites. “Oh, and tiramisu,” said Chara with that expanding Big Z smile. “Love tiramisu. Especially in the North End. The best.” He has run the race. He has kept the faith, especially early on when the faith of others was in short supply. He arrives this weekend at the front door of the Hockey Hall of Fame, ready to savor the desserts of his career.
