How Bruins Plan On Replacing Zdeno Chara’s Ice Time During 2021 Season

Twenty-one minutes. That’s what the Boston Bruins have to replace on their blue line every night now that Zdeno Chara is a Washington Capital.

Chara’s 14-year run with the Black and Gold officially ended Wednesday, when he signed with Washington. The decision, as Chara said in his farewell Instagram post, was partially because of the Bruins’ desires to give their younger players more ice time.

They’ll certainly get that wish. While Chara isn’t putting up 25 to 26 minutes of ice time like he did in his prime, that 21-minute average from a season ago is a lot. Don’t forget: That also includes more than three minutes of effective penalty-killing time per game.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney explained Thursday how Boston will go about filling that ice time. The Bruins, Sweeney said, will “spread those minutes around” as it won’t be one player who’s called on to replace Chara.

“We’re going to do it by committee and allow some of these guys a little bit of trial and error and potentially fail as a result of it — but also succeed as a result of it and not look over their shoulder in any way, shape or form because they have to gain that experience,” Sweeney said in a video conference with reporters. “You’re not going to move forward in your career if you’re not put in those situations. Sometimes, you fall flat and other times, you rise up.”

That likely means “veterans” like Brandon Carlo (24 years old) and Charlie McAvoy (23) will be asked to take on bigger roles. It also means relatively untested players like Jeremy Lauzon and Jakub Zboril will get to prove they’re capable of handling everyday D-man duties in the NHL.

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The Bruins, who offered Chara a contract earlier in the offseason, seemingly would prefer to have kept him but under their own playing time parameters.

Sweeney acknowledged they would have liked to have Chara back in an “integrated role” that also would have allowed the club to see what it had in its younger defensemen.

“We didn’t carve out in stone,” Sweeney said. “We just laid out in a forthright manner, in a clear, concise and hopefully communicative manner that we may experiment in some of these situations where it has not been possible with Zdeno occupying all of those minutes in years past. And doing it in a remarkable fashion. And again, there is some exposure associated with that. We looked at it from an integrated aspect to blend those situations together. But we wanted to be clear and concise going into it that, that was our intention and hope was.”