"We don't set any boundaries in terms of Z [with] talking to our coaches and our players."
The Bruins are looking to build a new foundation of core players this offseason.
But as Don Sweeney and his staff begin this process of forging a new chapter for this Original Six franchise, they’re brought in an old friend to work with a revamped roster.
In late January, Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe reported that former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara had rejoined the team in a “front office consultant’s role”.
“The Boston Bruins are excited to be exploring the opportunity to welcome Zdeno Chara in an advisory role that supports our players and coaches,” Sweeney said in a statement following Dupont’s report. “We have had an open invitation and ongoing dialogue with Zdeno to return in some capacity whenever he felt it was right for both he and his family.
“Zdeno recently indicated he has interest to help and be involved. While his schedule and role are still unfolding, we believe he can make a positive impact on the organization as a mentor to our players and advisor to our coaching staff.”
While details were vague on Chara’s involvement with the team for the remainder of the 2024-25 season, the 48-year-old ex-defenseman and future Hockey Hall of Famer was spotted around the team’s facilities at both TD Garden and Warrior Ice Arena over the last few months.
Speaking on Monday following the NHL Draft lottery, Sweeney shared more on Chara’s growing role within the organization.
“Since players have left, he’s not here on a daily basis,” Sweeney said of Chara. “Continues to talk to players on his own accord. We don’t set any boundaries in terms of Z [with] talking to our coaches and our players.
“We’ve given him some latitude as an advisory role and a mentor role as he sees fit. Establish relationships on his own terms. I think that will continue to evolve going forward with the new head coach, and we put that in place, and the rest of the staff. He’ll develop that relationship moving forward and determine how much involvement he’s going to have on that level.”
Having someone with Chara’s reputation as a leader stands as a welcome resource for the Bruins, especially during their ongoing efforts of retooling their roster with plenty of new faces in 2025-26 and beyond.
While Chara’s intimidating 6-foot-9 frame, booming shot, and reputation as a shutdown D all helped him develop into a franchise blueliner, his leadership and role in cultivating a winning culture in Boston also helped usher in an extended contention window with the franchise.
“Without that, you can’t win,” Chara said at his retirement ceremony about building a culture in Boston. “You need to have a culture. You need to have players that want to follow, and it wasn’t just me. It was a team effort. …. We had guys stepping in willing to come from other teams and adjust to that culture. We pushed each other. We were practicing as hard as we could against each other, but we were still ok with it.
“We set goals, and slowly and surely, we were climbing and making these steps, but without the culture and without someone planting the seed and basically putting the foot down that this is how it’s going to be, yeah it was hard at the beginning. It was not probably easy, and not everybody wanted to kind of change, but it was necessary. I felt it was necessary for this organization and for this team to make a change.”
