Boston captain Zdeno Chara is also set to enter the final year of his contract, and both Chara and the Bruins would like to keep the 6-foot-9, 255-pound defenseman in Boston for much longer than that.
“We’ve had a lot of constructive discussions,” said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli in a conference call on Friday. “I don’t really make it a practice to talk about negotiations. Z is a very valuable player to our team, obviously. I’m stating the obvious, and we hope at some time, whether it’s very soon or at some point [later], we hope to have him under contract too. He’s our captain and he’s obviously a very significant part of this team.”
Chara has made it clear he wants to stay in Boston, but he also would like to get the negotiations done before the start of the regular season.
“Obviously, that was my goal, to get this done before the season starts,” said Chara, who was on the same conference call with Chiarelli and coach Claude Julien. “We still have time. I feel confident that it’s going to get done. I’m only going to think of the positive, so we’ll see.”
They don’t have much time, as the Bruins open the season on Saturday with the first of two games against Phoenix in Prague. Chara would prefer not to have the distraction of ongoing negotiations once the real games begin, but didn’t completely close the door on continuing talks after Saturday’s season opener.
“I think I’m going to focus on my game and play hockey,” said Chara. “I’ll have to make that decision when it comes to that point.”
Chara signed the biggest deal in Bruins history when he inked a five-year,$37.5-million deal as a free agent in 2006. His $7.5-million cap hit is the highest on the club, but he also has the biggest impact on the team.
Chara, 33, is annually among the league leaders in ice time and the huge minutes he logs are quality minutes. He has averaged 47 points and 13.5 goals a year in his first four seasons in Boston, winning the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman in 2008-09. He’s also an elite shutdown defender and one of the NHL’s most intimidating physical players.
Entering his 13th NHL season, Chara has played 847 games in the league with 111-252-363 totals, 1,297 penalty minutes and a plus-83 rating. Despite his physical style, he’s missed just 11 games in four seasons with the Bruins, including just two last year when he played much of the season with a serious hand injury that hampered his shooting and stick-handling ability and prevented him from fighting.
He’s healthy now and has stated his desire to play into his 40s. With his commitment to fitness, Chara could maintain his effectiveness that long. Now it’s just a matter of the Bruins making sure he plays as many of those years in Boston as possible.
