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Report: Bruins have interest in extending Zdeno Chara

Zdeno Chara

Zdeno Chara

AP

The Boston Bruins made news Thursday, signing restricted free agent forward David Pastrnak to a contract extension. There was also another nugget of information to come from Don Sweeney’s meeting with the media.

According to Joe Haggerty of CSN New England, the Bruins have interest in a contract extension for defenseman Zdeno Chara, and there have been discussions between the team’s general manager and its captain.

Chara turned 40 years old in March and has 1,350 regular season games under his belt, not to mention almost 150 playoff games. He also has one year remaining on his seven-year, $45 million contract, which, according to CapFriendly, has a cap hit of $4 million for the upcoming season.

Chara has been a beast for the Bruins for many years, imposing his will on opposing forwards and putting up impressive offensive numbers on numerous occasions throughout his career. Last season, he led all Boston players in overall ice time and time on the penalty kill -- both by a sizable margin.

But he’s only getting older, which raises the discussion about whether he can still handle such a significant workload going forward, especially if he does return beyond this season. The Bruins also have defensemen like Torey Krug, Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy who could be ready to take on even more responsibility on the blue line.
“It’s something that probably management has to think about and make a decision on that,” Chara told NESN in April. “I’ve said many times I want to play and would like to play beyond this contract. I want to still be very effective and still want to get better and improve and maintain my game and keep adding to my game.”