The NHL is in a quiet period where there is nothing but rumors. going on about what might or might not happen when we get closer to NHL training camps beginning.
The NHL Network has been releasing their Top 20 players at each position, and they also released their Quarter Century Team. One former Bruins legend was on the list, Patrice Bergeron, and that was a no-brainer. However, one quick look at the defenseman and there was a glaring omission from Boston.
Former Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara snubbed from NHL Network's Quarter Century Team
Again, Bergeron is a no-brainer being named to the team, but Zdeno Chara being left off is rather inexcusable, if we're being honest. Here are the defenseman that made it over Big Z,
- Drew Doughty
- Victor Hedman
- Duncan Keith
- Cale Makar
- Shea Weber
- Alex Pietrangelo
When the Bruins signed Chara as a free agent in the summer of 2007, it was a game-changer for the franchise. How much of a game-changer? He was named captain before he even suited up for a game, and he became the top defenseman during most of his time in Boston. A long reach, he was a prototypical shutdown defenseman who frustrated his opponents on a nightly basis.
Sure, Chara won the hardest shot competition at the NHL All-Star Game, played in the All-Star Game six times, but it was what he brought to the table in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and along with Tim Thomas, he was a backbone to the Black and Gold's Stanley Cup Championship in seven games over the Vancouver Canucks. Let's not forget the 2019 Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues when he had multiple jaw fractures in Game 4, but never missed a game the rest of the series.
The first four names are deserving to be on the list, but Weber and Pietrangelo? Neither has won a Norris Trophy, and Chara did that in 2009 with the Bruins. His legacy in Boston will always be one of an all-time great, but to leave him off the Quarter Century Team is inexcusable.