One final year for Zdeno Chara and the Boston Bruins makes perfect sense

One final kick of the can with the Boston Bruins makes sense for Zdeno Chara.

We’re just a few weeks away from the proposed start of the 2020-21 NHL season on Jan. 13, 2021, pending an official announcement, and Zdeno Chara is still sitting out there as an Unrestricted Free Agent.

It has been reported that the hulking defenseman wanted to wait until all details regarding the 2020-21 season were revealed before making a decision on his career, while retirement rumors were also out there too.

Should Chara opt for one more year, however, there will be a plethora of teams interested and we mapped out the best fits for the veteran defenseman here.

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One of those teams was the Boston Bruins and, as we get closer to the return of hockey, it makes more and more sense for Zdeno Chara to return to the place he has called home for the last 14 seasons.

For starters, Chara is the heartbeat of this team alongside Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand and, quite frankly, it would just be weird to see the giant blueliner in another jersey at this point.

He has worn that cherished “C” on his chest for the majority of his time in Boston and it would be fitting for the future Hall of Famer to finish out his career in the place he truly established his legend.

More seriously, though, Chara still has something left in the tank and there’s still a vital role he can play for the B’s.

While father time is catching up with the 43-year-old and perhaps not suited for a top-four role anymore, Chara could slot in on the bottom-pairing for the Bruins and be a mentor for one of the franchise’s young up-and-coming blueliners in Jakub Zboril, Urho Vaakanainen and Jeremy Lauzon.

He would be an ideal partner for a young stud looking to cut their teeth in the National Hockey League, acting as a solid presence and a steady hand during the heated battles featured in every NHL game.

Also, while clearly having lost a step or two and maybe not as well suited to the rapid pace of the modern-day NHL as he once was, Chara boasts intangibles that you just can’t replace in experience, toughness and leadership.

He boasts all three in abundance and, standing at a physically imposing 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds, Chara’s mere presence ensures that few opposing players are willing to take liberties against the likes of David Pastrnak or Charlie McAvoy, knowing that a whole lot of punishment will be coming their way if they do.

Chara can still play a key roll on the penalty kill – something he does better than most – and lowering his ATOI from the 21:01 he logged during the 2019-20 regular season could help to preserve the grizzled veteran’s battered body for another year.

Playing a 56-game shortened season would also help to reduce the wear and tear on Chara and keep him fresh for the postseason, and perhaps also give him another chance to add a second Stanley Cup ring before he rides off into the sunset.

Plus, his wealth of experience would prove crucial for what will now be a young blueline led by Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk, with Chara able to bring a boatload of hockey IQ and brute force to the table to help compliment the youthful swagger of his much younger colleagues.

There is still value when it comes to Chara in the defensive zone – he had a plus / minus rating of +26 in 68 regular season games in 2019-20 – while he can still chip in with offense as proven by his 14 points (5 G, 9 A) last year.

He knows the game like the back of his hand and his instincts and wealth of knowledge perhaps makes up for his lack of speed and loss of a step or two, while his leadership will prove more essential following the loss of Torey Krug from the room, who signed a seven-year, $45,500,000 million contract with the St. Louis Blues in Free Agency.

Granted, Chara did look a shadow of his former self in the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Playoffs with just two points (2 A) and a plus / minus rating of -4 in 13 games but, as already outlined above, a combination of less games, less minutes and a lesser but more refined role could prove to be a lethal and successful cocktail for both Chara and the Bruins.

Boston would have the cap space, too, given that they currently have $2,982,686 to play with according to CapFriendly, and Chara would likely take a team-friendly deal in the region of $1 million to come back for one more year.

Overall, Zdeno Chara is the pure epitome of toughness – the gold standard of Boston hockey – and it would make all the sense in the world for the hard-nosed and tough as nails defenseman to run it back with the Boston Bruins for one more year and help this core try to win another Stanley Cup.