Zdeno Chara has officially put an end to his on-ice playing days.
Chara played in “Zee’s Final Shift” on Friday, an all-star-laden farewell game celebrating the Slovakian defenseman’s legendary career. The friendly took place inside a sold-out Pavol Demitra Ice Hockey Stadium in Chara’s hometown of Trencin, Slovakia.
At the end of the game, Chara poignantly removed his skates and left them at center ice — hockey’s equivalent of a professional wrestler leaving their boots in the ring or a UFC fighter leaving their gloves in the Octagon.
Zdeno Chara takes skates off and places them at center ice
Chara then joined hands with his twin sons, Zack and Ben, and made his way off the ice as the rest of the players raised their sticks.
Zdeno Chara saluted as he leaves ice with two sons
“It’s amazing, great,” Chara told Sport24sk postgame, as translated by Google Translate. “Thank you to the audience for coming; I appreciate it, and I’m incredibly grateful for it.”
The game pitted one team of past and present Boston Bruins-affiliated players against a “Rest of World” team full of Slovakia’s greatest-ever talents. Chara split time with both teams during the game.
Included on Team Boston were Patrice Bergeron, Chris Kelly, Milan Lucic, David Pastrnak, Mark Recchi, Michael Ryder, Josef Stumpel, Marco Sturm, Ray Bourque, Johnny Boychuk, Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg, Adam McQuaid, and Jaroslav Halak. They were coached by Tim Thomas and Matt Keator.
The Rest of the World roster included Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa, Tomas Vanek, Jaromir Jagr, Robert Reichel, Jakub Voracek, Miroslav Satan, Ziggy Palffy, Michal Handzus, Andrej Sekera, Radek Hamr, Aaron Ward, Tomas Kaberle, and former international soccer star Petr Cech as goaltender. They were coached by Washington Capitals legend Peter Bondra and Marian Gaborik.
The two teams wore specially designed jerseys, with a logo modeled after the Bruins’ famous spoked ‘B’ logo. The black and yellow sweaters featured Chara’s number 33 in the middle, with one of the 3s acting as the ‘B’ typically would on Boston’s uniforms.
As part of the fun, Chara also participated in a hardest-shot contest, which was a tribute to when he set the NHL All-Star record with a 108.8 mph slap shot in 2012. With his final attempt on Friday, Chara somehow matched his previous high.
Zdeno Chara fires 108.8 mph slap shot
During his 24 seasons in the NHL, Chara played in 1,680 games — the most all-time as a defenseman — as a member of the New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins, and Washington Capitals, recording 680 points (209g, 471a). Chara was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2025 and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.
Since retiring in September 2022, Chara has continued to thrive as an athlete, turning to marathon running and Ironman competitions. He was also hired by the Bruins as a hockey operations advisor and mentor in late September, and the franchise retired his number 33 jersey a few months later.
