With all of the young talent the Panthers have, the one thing they are missing is veteran leadership and a winning culture. The signing of Jumbo Joe last week showed that Bill Zito is trying to surround his youthful core with guys who know how to win.
While Joe Thornton has won in international play and has many personal awards and achievements, he has not won hockey’s ultimate price.
This being said, there is another big bodied legend of the game who is still a free agent and also has his name engraved on Lord Stanley. While Chara is not the same player of 3-4 years ago, he is still a leader in any locker room and someone who knows how to win.
He captained the 2011 Boston Bruins to their Stanley Cup. Chara also led them back to the SCF in 2013 and 2019. Everyone remembers him playing against St. Louis with a broken jaw and giving it everything he had trying to win a 2nd Cup.
This could very well be his last kick at the can and obviously some of these wily veterans see something special in South Florida.
While Z is no longer a guy who can eat up 20+ minutes of ice time a game, he showed in Washington that he can be productive as a 5-6 defenseman even at 44 years old. Why not let the youthful legs run amuck for 20+ minutes while the veterans get their 14-17 minutes and scare the shit out of everyone?
Do you think guys like Wilson, Reaves, or Maroon would be acting up if they had to answer to a guy like Chara? Hell no. Chara would tell them to knock it off and Wilson would say “yes sir” pretty fucking quick.
First off, when a legend of the game speaks, you listen. And don’t be fooled, Chara is a Hall of Famer and an absolute legend of the sport.
More importantly, if you don’t want to listen, do you really want to tangle with a 6’9” guy weighing in around 250 lbs.? I don’t care how tough you think you are; Chara can hurt you very easily with his 7-foot wingspan. You won’t even be the same zip code while is punching your face in.
While Big Z is not the guy going to get 25-30+ points anymore, but he still finished last season in Washington with a +5 in +/- and 2 goals and 8 assists in 55 games.
An added bonus to signing Z, his training and work ethic have kept him healthy throughout the course of his career. He can step up and fill the role should any of the Panthers blue liners go down. The Panthers seem to be plagued by injury and having a simple insurance policy like Chara could never hurt. Especially with the Ekblad injury fresh in our minds.
Finally, much like Jumbo Joe, Chara is wanting one more shot at winning a Cup and is not playing for the money. Last year in Washington he signed a 1-year contract for $795k. I guarantee he would take about the same deal to come to Florida as well and that type of gamble for Florida would makes sense. Low risk for potential high reward.
The former Norris Trophy winning defenseman would be a great addition to the Panthers backend and Billy Z would be very wise to surround the younger players like Ekblad and Weegar with a winner and true champion of the sport.
Zito, let those balls hang low one more time and bring Big Z to South Florida!
