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Former Bruins Zdeno Chara

Bruinaura said:
I love stories about Zee. He was one of a kind. Still is.
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Speaking of old defensemen, I'm watching the Sens game and Suter is playing. Isn't he like 63 or something? Funny, if he was in Boston he would be our best Dman, even at 63!
 
www.bostonglobe.com

Zdeno Chara was surprised to be elected to the IIHF Hall of Fame, but he shouldn’t have been - The Boston Globe

“Just a humongous honor,” said a sincere Chara. “It’s such a privilege and I am so humbled by it — because it’s a hall of fame, it’s international.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Zdeno Chara was in Stockholm last Sunday, though not specifically to watch the United States and Switzerland play for IIHF World Championship gold.

Big Z, the towering former Bruins captain who helped reset the franchise in the months and years after his arrival in Boston in July 2006, was in the Swedish capital for his induction into the IIHF Hall of Fame. The event, staged at 4 a.m (Boston Time) flew far under the radar for even the most ardent Black & Gold fan.

“Just a humongous honor,” said a sincere Chara, speaking by phone late this past week as he navigated afternoon traffic en route home to the Boston suburbs. “It’s such a privilege and I am so humbled by it — because it’s a hall of fame, it’s international. To be honest, when I found out, it brought me all the way back to when I was a kid … how it all started … learning how to skate, shooting pucks, playing street hockey and falling in love with it.”

Clearly, if not Chara for such an honor, then who?

The Slovak-born strongman played his final NHL game three years ago at age 45, his 1,680 regular-season games ranking seventh in league history and No. 1 among defensemen. His name is on the Stanley Cup as a Bruin (2011) and he was awarded the Norris Trophy in 2009 as that season’s top blue liner. He spent 14 years as Bruins captain, instilling and curating a culture woven into the club’s three trips to the Cup Final (2011, ‘13, and ‘19) during his tenure.

Chara also captained two Slovak national squads that won silver medals at the Worlds, and three times wore his country’s colors at the Olympic Games (2006, ‘10, ‘14). So it should have been zero surprise when International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif called a couple of months ago to welcome Chara to this year’s class.

Yet it was a surprise, to Chara.

“I said, ‘Whoa! I mean, are you sure?,” said Big Z, chuckling as he related his back and forth with Tardif. “And he said, ‘Yeah, of course … it’s been voted on … you’re in!’ ”

To help understand that response, understand Chara — not only for his genuinely unassuming nature and presence, but particularly for the unconventional path he traveled to the summit of his profession. Decades ago in Trencin, as a gangly and athletically awkward young teenager, his dream was not to play in the NHL or one day see his name placed next to the game’s greatest European players.

“I was cut … and cut again … all I wanted to do was make my hometown team!” recalled an animated Chara. “You move up by age groups, right? And that’s automatic … good or bad, you move up. But as you progress, teams bring together two or three age groups [different birth years], that’s where the cuts start and I didn’t make it. Not good enough.”

In part, that underappreciation of his game and skills was what led Chara, at considerable peril, to defect to North America in the fall of ‘96. After the Islanders took a third-round flyer on him (pick No. 56) in the ‘96 draft, Chara thrived in his one season of top-level Canadian junior hockey with WHL Prince George and made his NHL debut some 18 months later.

A complicating factor in Chara suiting up that first time for his country was that he had defected, opting for a shot at big-time hockey in North America instead of serving mandatory military service.

“I’d call home,” recalled Chara, “and my dad would say, ‘The military police were just here, looking for you … you better not come home or they’ll lock you up.’ ”

Before flying out of New York for his return to Bratislava in the spring of ‘99, he had to be assured he wouldn’t be hauled away once landing on Slovak terra firma.

“I swear, it was like a scene from a movie,” he said, recalling how he felt after he got off the plane back home. “There’s this one belt going around with my bag on it and I see this glass sliding door … and it’s opening and closing, opening and closing. And I see this officer behind those doors. I have my passport in my hand, and I’m thinking, ‘OK, this could be it … I pass through that door and somebody puts handcuffs on me and I’m done. Are the Islanders going to bail me out? Maybe, who knows?’ I knew I had papers from the national team … I knew I should be OK, but…”

He made it through the door just fine, and nearly three decades later, his name has been added to the IIHF’s honored section at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

The HHOF votes on its candidates for this year’s inductees June 24, and Chara is a virtual lock to be named to the class that will be feted in November.

“If it happens it happens,“ he said. “Obviously, I’d be very, very grateful, But again, like IIHF, I know there’s so many names that deserve to be there and, rightfully, they have so many great candidates that should be there. If I am there … we’ll see, that’s up to others to decide. Right now, I’m just enjoying my life, being a dad … but yes, it would be a tremendous, tremendous honor.”
 
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Gee Wally said:
www.bostonglobe.com

Zdeno Chara was surprised to be elected to the IIHF Hall of Fame, but he shouldn’t have been - The Boston Globe

“Just a humongous honor,” said a sincere Chara. “It’s such a privilege and I am so humbled by it — because it’s a hall of fame, it’s international.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Zdeno Chara was in Stockholm last Sunday, though not specifically to watch the United States and Switzerland play for IIHF World Championship gold.

Big Z, the towering former Bruins captain who helped reset the franchise in the months and years after his arrival in Boston in July 2006, was in the Swedish capital for his induction into the IIHF Hall of Fame. The event, staged at 4 a.m (Boston Time) flew far under the radar for even the most ardent Black & Gold fan.

“Just a humongous honor,” said a sincere Chara, speaking by phone late this past week as he navigated afternoon traffic en route home to the Boston suburbs. “It’s such a privilege and I am so humbled by it — because it’s a hall of fame, it’s international. To be honest, when I found out, it brought me all the way back to when I was a kid … how it all started … learning how to skate, shooting pucks, playing street hockey and falling in love with it.”

Clearly, if not Chara for such an honor, then who?

The Slovak-born strongman played his final NHL game three years ago at age 45, his 1,680 regular-season games ranking seventh in league history and No. 1 among defensemen. His name is on the Stanley Cup as a Bruin (2011) and he was awarded the Norris Trophy in 2009 as that season’s top blue liner. He spent 14 years as Bruins captain, instilling and curating a culture woven into the club’s three trips to the Cup Final (2011, ‘13, and ‘19) during his tenure.

Chara also captained two Slovak national squads that won silver medals at the Worlds, and three times wore his country’s colors at the Olympic Games (2006, ‘10, ‘14). So it should have been zero surprise when International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif called a couple of months ago to welcome Chara to this year’s class.

Yet it was a surprise, to Chara.

“I said, ‘Whoa! I mean, are you sure?,” said Big Z, chuckling as he related his back and forth with Tardif. “And he said, ‘Yeah, of course … it’s been voted on … you’re in!’ ”

To help understand that response, understand Chara — not only for his genuinely unassuming nature and presence, but particularly for the unconventional path he traveled to the summit of his profession. Decades ago in Trencin, as a gangly and athletically awkward young teenager, his dream was not to play in the NHL or one day see his name placed next to the game’s greatest European players.

“I was cut … and cut again … all I wanted to do was make my hometown team!” recalled an animated Chara. “You move up by age groups, right? And that’s automatic … good or bad, you move up. But as you progress, teams bring together two or three age groups [different birth years], that’s where the cuts start and I didn’t make it. Not good enough.”

In part, that underappreciation of his game and skills was what led Chara, at considerable peril, to defect to North America in the fall of ‘96. After the Islanders took a third-round flyer on him (pick No. 56) in the ‘96 draft, Chara thrived in his one season of top-level Canadian junior hockey with WHL Prince George and made his NHL debut some 18 months later.

A complicating factor in Chara suiting up that first time for his country was that he had defected, opting for a shot at big-time hockey in North America instead of serving mandatory military service.

“I’d call home,” recalled Chara, “and my dad would say, ‘The military police were just here, looking for you … you better not come home or they’ll lock you up.’ ”

Before flying out of New York for his return to Bratislava in the spring of ‘99, he had to be assured he wouldn’t be hauled away once landing on Slovak terra firma.

“I swear, it was like a scene from a movie,” he said, recalling how he felt after he got off the plane back home. “There’s this one belt going around with my bag on it and I see this glass sliding door … and it’s opening and closing, opening and closing. And I see this officer behind those doors. I have my passport in my hand, and I’m thinking, ‘OK, this could be it … I pass through that door and somebody puts handcuffs on me and I’m done. Are the Islanders going to bail me out? Maybe, who knows?’ I knew I had papers from the national team … I knew I should be OK, but…”

He made it through the door just fine, and nearly three decades later, his name has been added to the IIHF’s honored section at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

The HHOF votes on its candidates for this year’s inductees June 24, and Chara is a virtual lock to be named to the class that will be feted in November.

“If it happens it happens,“ he said. “Obviously, I’d be very, very grateful, But again, like IIHF, I know there’s so many names that deserve to be there and, rightfully, they have so many great candidates that should be there. If I am there … we’ll see, that’s up to others to decide. Right now, I’m just enjoying my life, being a dad … but yes, it would be a tremendous, tremendous honor.”
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Books I want to read someday

@Fenway autobiography
Chara autobiography
 
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Mark your calendars for June 24th. HOF announcements will be announced at some point that day.

www.hhof.com

HHOF | 2024 Induction Eligible Players

The annual meeting of the Selection Committee will be held on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 in Toronto to select and announce the 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees. The selection announcement will be made live on Tuesday, June 24 on TSN (time TBC).
www.hhof.com www.hhof.com
 
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