Zdeno Chara’s agent: “20 plus teams reached out…He still has the option to retire”
Anthony Scultore
|
Zdeno Chara’s future is still up in the air. According to Pierre Lebrun, Matt Keator says he expects to talk with the Boston Bruins in the next few days.
Zdeno Chara may still decide to retire
“I’ve had 20 plus teams reach out to me, but [Chara’s] focus right now is to talk to Boston,” Keator told Lebrun. “He still has the option to retire, but he seems very interested in playing if it’s the right fit.”
Bruins team president, Cam Neely spoke with the press via Zoom. He had some interesting comments on Chara and the future of the Bruins defense.
“We do want to take a look at some of these young, left-shot Ds that we have in our system to see if they can step up or if it’s the time for them to step up, and to see where they’re at in their development. We certainly respect Zdeno and everything he’s done for the organization and what he’s accomplished as a player and what he’s done both on and off the ice here in Boston. It’s really just a matter of what his desire is and how the coaching staff and we feel what our lineup should look like and could look like depending on the development of some of these young guys.”
Boston Herald
So will Zdeno retire?
So what happens if the Bruins feel it is best to move on? It certainly sounds like that could be the case. I also reported on December 13th that Chara may retire if he wasn’t comfortable with how things shook out.
What I am hearing out of Boston is if Chara is not comfortable with the format and schedule, he may not sign with any NHL team. All of this raises the possibility that the 43 year-old defenseman who turns 44 in March may decide to hang his skates for good.
The Daily Goal Horn
The latest I could gather is that Zdeno may only want to play this season for Boston. If not, then he could decide to not play this season and eventually retire.
Chara and the New York Rangers?
One of the teams that was rumored to be interested in Chara were the New York Rangers. Is it possible with the ability to have a taxi squad, for the Blueshirts to work out a deal? That would likely send recently signed Jack Johnson to the taxi squad if Chara were amicable to a one year contract at around $1 million.
Jeff Gorton has to manage a cap that comes with uncertainty. The Rangers need to set aside 3 million worth of cushion to accommodate for extensive performance bonuses for players like Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, Igor Shesterkin, and Adam Fox to name a few.