Zdeno Chara is going to be sticking around for a little bit longer. The 6’9″ Bruins defenseman told Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun that he could see himself playing up until the end of his current contract.
“My contract goes for another three years and I’d like to play until then,” he said. “I think we still have a competitive team with some good young players. Being out of the playoffs just makes you want to get back there even more. You’d rather be playing at this time of year,” he added. “But at the same time, it’s given me a chance to heal, and that’s important.”
Chara has a cap hit worth almost $18 million total over the next three years and still remains a very important piece for the Bruins. The 2008-09 Norris Trophy winner may not be the elite defenseman he used to be, but he’s still expect to play top-pair minutes and bring the physical and offensive game he’s made a career out of.
Last season, Chara only managed to appear in 63 games due to nagging knee injuries and finished with with only 20 points, which was the lowest of his Bruins career in a non-lockout year.
The Bruins’ defense may look substantially different next season with Adam McQuaid and Matt Bartkowski both hitting unrestricted free agency and potential offer sheets looming for RFA Dougie Hamilton. The latter is an interesting case because the Bruins are paying eight forwards at least $3 million plus, so if a team with a decent amount of cap space loads up a front-loaded offer, the Bruins may have to crunch the numbers in order to make things work. Either way, it seems like Chara is going to be rode heavily by the club.
Boston has gone though quite a bit of change already with Peter Chiarelli being fired and Don Sweeney being brought in as general manager – so it’s hard to say how the team is going to change, but it would be absolutely shocking to see Chara not be a major part of this team next season.
