NEW YORK. When Wayne Gretzky looked at a two-meter-long Slovak young man at the end of the twentieth century, he warned.
He smiled at the New York Rangers coach where he was playing and said a memorable sentence. “That’s why I’m quitting.”
He looked at the future legend. The defender as a mountain entered the NHL as the highest player in its history. His name is Zdeno Chára, he came from Slovakia and from the beginning he was used for defensive play and battles, if necessary.
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Twenty-four years after starting his career in the overseas competition, he is no longer just an unknown Trenčín giant. It has become synonymous with the new, more demanding NHL.
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And it was he who did few. Looking at his unusual figure, hardly anyone would expect him to stay in the (minimum) forty-five in the NHL.
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Zdeno Chára broke Chris Chelios’ record on Friday when he played the 1,652 game in the NHL.
No defender has played more in the most prestigious hockey league in the world. In the table of all players, he finished on Mark Recchi in seventh place.
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Depreciated
Zdeno Chara is not just a name. Especially in Slovakia it is a concept. One of the most famous and respected hockey players of his era grew out of a depreciated young man who was mockingly sent to basketball.
In the past, his father Zdeněk mentioned the moment when the well-known coach Ernest Bokroš said that Chár would not be a hockey player. Chara Sr. replied that he would make him the best defender in the world.
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