Zdeno Chara

Zdeno Chára (born March 18, 1977) is a Slovak professional ice hockey defenseman. He is the captain of the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL) and won the Norris Trophy while playing for them in 2008–09. At 6 ft 9 (2.06 m), he is the tallest player ever to play in the NHL. He is also the second European born and trained captain to win the Stanley Cup.

New York Islanders (1997–2001)
Chára was drafted 56th overall by the New York Islanders in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft. After four seasons with the Islanders, he was traded to the Ottawa Senators during the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. Chára was part of a package deal with Bill Muckalt and the second overall pick in that year's draft (Jason Spezza) that sent Alexei Yashin to New York.

Ottawa Senators (2001–2006)
As a Senator for four years, Chára emerged as an elite defenseman in the league and more than doubled his previous offensive totals in his first season with Ottawa. In his second season with the team, 2002–03, Chára made his first All-Star Game appearance and recorded the second hardest shot behind Al MacInnis in the skills competition.

The next season, in addition to posting 16 goals and 41 points, Chára recorded the league's third highest plus/minus, behind Martin St. Louis and Marek Malík, culminating into his first Norris Trophy nomination. Although he would lose to Scott Niedermayer as the league's best defenseman, he would join Niedermayer on the NHL First All-Star Team.

After the 2004–05 NHL lockout, in which Chára played in the Swedish Elitserien for Färjestads BK, he matched his previous NHL season's 16-goal total and increased to 56 points, good enough for NHL Second All-Star Team honours. As Chára did not come to terms on a new contract with Ottawa, he became an unrestricted free agent at the end of 2005–06.



Boston Bruins (2006–present)
Subsequently, on July 1, 2006, he signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Boston Bruins and was named the team's captain, a role left vacant since Joe Thornton's departure during the 2005–06 season. He became only the third Slovak-born NHL player to become a team captain, after Peter Šťastný of the Quebec Nordiques and Stan Mikita (co-captain) of the Chicago Blackhawks. He was named to the 2007 All-Star Game, his second appearance, in Dallas and scored two goals in an 12–9 Eastern Conference loss. Chára also won the hardest shot segment of the preceding skills competition, clocking a shot at 100.4 mph.

In 2008, he was voted in as a starter in the All-Star Game for the first time in his career and repeated as the winner of the hardest shot competition, recording an even-faster 103.1 mph (166 km/h) on the radar gun. On March 8, 2008, during a game against the Washington Capitals, Chára suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. However, after missing five games, he played the remainder of the season including the playoffs. Upon a first-round elimination at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens, he underwent a shoulder operation on April 29. At the end of the season, Chára received his second nomination for the Norris Trophy after tallying a career-high 17 goals, 34 assists and 51 points, marking the fifth straight season he had either matched or bested his previous season's points total.

In 2008–09, Chára was named to his fourth All-Star Game. As back-to-back champion of the hardest shot competition, Chára initiated a charity drive among the participants ($1,000 per player) to go to the charity of choice of the competition's winner. Having raised $24,000 from the six competitors and their respective teams, the NHL and the NHLPA, Chára set a new Skills Competition record, with a 105.4 mph (169.7 km/h) slapshot. He donated the winnings to Right to Play. The shot passed Al Iafrate's previous record-making 105.2 mph (169.3 km/h) slapper from just over a decade earlier. Then, at the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina, he eclipsed his previous record with a shot clocked at 105.9 mph (170.43 km/h). He won the Norris Trophy for the 2008–09 season, beating out Mike Green of the Washington Capitals and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings.

On October 9, 2010, Chara re-signed with the Bruins with a 7-year deal.

On January 17, 2011, Chara recorded his first career hat trick against the Carolina Hurricanes to make it a 7–0 final. He celebrated the feat by performing fellow Slovak star Peter Bondra's celebration, where he mocked throwing a hat into the air.

On June 15, 2011, Chara captained the Boston Bruins to win the Stanley Cup against the Vancouver Canucks for the first time since 1972.

On March 8, 2011, Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty suffered an injury following a hit by Chara. The force and location of the hit resulted in Pacioretty colliding with the stanchion at the end of the bench. He was taken off the ice on a stretcher. The extent of the injury was revealed the next day to be a non-displaced fracture to the 4th vertebra and a severe concussion. For delivering the hit Chara received a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, and videotape of the play was sent to NHL VP of hockey operations Mike Murphy for review. Mike Murphy decided no further punishment was warranted. However, a criminal investigation was announced by the Montreal police. On November 17, 2011, the Crown Prosecutor Office announced that Chara would not be criminally charged.
 * Pacioretty Incident

Awards

 * Played in NHL All-Star Game in 2003, 2007, 2008 (starter), 2009 and 2011
 * Named to the NHL First All-Star Team in 2004 and 2009.
 * Named to the NHL Second All-Star Team in 2006, 2008 and 2011.
 * Won the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 2009.
 * Won the Hardest Shot competition at the NHL All-Star Game SuperSkills Competition in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011 where he set a record of 105.9 mph (170.4 km/hr).
 * Won the NHL Plus-Minus Award in 2011 with a +33 rating.
 * Won the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2011.
 * Won the Stanley Cup in 2011.
 * First NHL player born inside the Iron Curtain to captain an NHL team to the Stanley Cup (2011).

Records

 * NHL All-Star Skills Competition hardest shot record – 105.9 mph (170.4 km/hr) (2011) (surpassed his previous record from 2009 – 105.4 mph in 2009)

Personal life
Before he was drafted in the NHL, back in Slovakia, his coaches told him that he was better off playing basketball instead, due to his great size.

Zdeno Chára married his long-time girlfriend Tatiana Biskupicová on July 14, 2007, in a Catholic church in Nemšová, Slovakia. Tatiana gave birth to the couple's first child, daughter Elliz Victoria Chára (or Chárová) on April 27, 2009. His father, Zdenek, was a Greco-Roman wrestler who competed for Czechoslovakia in the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Chára is an Athletic Ambassador for Right to Play. In July 2008, he spent two weeks in Africa, going to Mozambique in support of the charity, and then climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with fellow NHL player Robyn Regehr.

Chára speaks seven languages: Slovak, Czech, Polish, Swedish, Russian, German, and English.

International play
Chára has played for Slovakia in the following international competitions:
 * 1999 World Championships
 * 2000 World Championships
 * 2001 World Championships
 * 2004 World Championships
 * 2004 World Cup
 * 2005 World Championships
 * 2006 Winter Olympics
 * 2007 World Championships
 * 2010 Winter Olympics