Copyright MassLive
When Zdeno Chara began his NHL career in 1997, he wasn’t the best skater. That changed quickly, though, and he evolved into a top defenseman in the league. The first time Wayne Gretzky saw Chara was when he played for the New York Islanders, and was impressed by his size — Chara stands at 6-foot-9 — but not his skating. That changed in Chara’s second year and led to Gretzky not wanting to share the ice with him. “The first time I saw him in the warm up, I remember looking down the other end. I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this guy’s a big man. But he’s not that great of a skater,’” Greztzky said during TNT’s coverage of the Boston Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs game on Tuesday. “So I tried to jump on the ice every time he was out there. By the second year, I was looking down there and I told (then-New York Rangers coach) Colin Campbell, ‘When he’s out there, I’m just jumping off.’ Because within six months he went from a new young kid in the NHL to being one of the toughest best defensemen to ever play in our game.” Chara spent his first four NHL seasons with the Islanders before he joined the Ottawa Senators for four years. He then signed with the Bruins ahead of the 2006-07 season and helped reset the culture in the locker room and on the ice. He captained the team all 14 seasons he was in Boston. A career-high 19 goals and 31 assists during the 2008-09 season led Chara to his first Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman. He was the recipient of the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2010-11 and named to the NHL First All-Star Team three times (2003-04, 2008-09, 2013-14), the Second All-Star Team four times (2005-06, 2007-08, 2010-11, 2011-12). Chara also had a slew of success at the international level. He is a six-time Golden Puck as Slovakia’s Player of the Year, a two-time silver medalist in the IIHF World Hockey and a silver medalist with Team Europe in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The 48-year-old called it a career after the 2021-22 season and signed a one-day contract with the Bruins to retire as a member of the Original Six franchise. The 6-foot-9 defenseman ranks sixth in franchise history in games played with 1,023, and third in points by a defenseman with 481, behind only fellow Hall of Famers Ray Bourque (1,506) and Bobby Orr (888). The changes Chara quickly made from Year 1 to Year 2 helped develop him into a dominant defenseman, leader and how Hockey Hall of Famer. “Good for him,” Greztzky said. “It’s all through hard work.”
