Zdeno Chara isn’t just mentoring young Boston Bruins defensemen on the ice.
The Bruins blueliner has been around the NHL for quite some time and is renowned for his preparedness for life beyond hockey. He’s a bookworm that has made quite clear he simply enjoys learning, and plenty of teammates over the years have detailed the lessons they learned from him.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan did a roundtable with NHL players, asking them a variety of questions both about the game of hockey and matters off the ice. Young B’s defender Charlie McAvoy was on the panel, and one of the questions he got asked was a piece of financial advice that he wish he knew as a rookie.
His response was a lesson Chara passed on to him.
“Save, save, save. Save your money,” McAvoy said of his biggest lesson. “(Chara)Â is big on that. He’s been around a long time, he’s made a lot of money, and he’s pretty good about spending. He lectured me one time on agent fees. We were sitting in the cold tub, (and I said), ‘I think it’s standard everyone’s agent gets 3 or 4 percent.’ He said, ‘You gotta tell your agent, like I did, 1 percent or I’ll go find a new one.’ Or something like that.”
Sound advice.
There are many horror stories about professional athletes making poor financial decisions, but having a guy like Chara around when you break into the league sounds pretty beneficial.
