Two former Bruins are heading to the Hockey Hall of Fame, as Zdeno Chara and Joe Thornton have both been elected in their first year of eligibility. Former Boston University coach Jack Parker will also be inducted in the builder category as part of an eight-person class.
While Chara and Thornton have very different legacies in Boston, and never played together, their career arcs are nonetheless connected.
Thornton, the No. 1 overall pick in 1997, was in his eighth season as a Bruin and his third as team captain in November 2005 when then-general manager Mike O’Connell decided to trade him to San Jose in one of the most stunning moves in franchise history. Thornton would win the Hart Trophy as league MVP that season and would go on to build the bulk of his Hall of Fame resume during his 15 years with the Sharks.
For the Bruins, the trade ended one era and set up a franchise reset in the summer of 2006. That reset was built around the free-agent signing of Chara – the best free-agent signing in Bruins history. Boston immediately named Chara captain, and the then-29-year-old went to work on reshaping the Bruins’ culture in his image.
It didn’t pay immediate dividends on the ice, as the Bruins finished last in the division in 2006-07. But then the build began in earnest. They returned to the playoffs in 2008 and then had the best record in the conference in 2009, a year in which Chara would win the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the league.
Two years later, in 2011, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, the franchise’s first since 1972. Chara played a whopping 27:39 per game that postseason and combined with D partner Dennis Seidenberg and goalie Tim Thomas to stymie the Sedin twins, two Hall of Famers themselves, in the Stanley Cup Final.
Chara would finish top-five in Norris voting five other times as a Bruin, including in 2011. The Bruins would reach two more Stanley Cup Finals in 2013 and 2019, with one of Chara's signature moments coming in the 2019 Final when he played through a broken jaw.
Chara's 14-year captaincy is the second-longest in franchise history, behind only Ray Bourque’s 15 years. His 1,023 games played with the Bruins is the eighth-most in franchise history, and his 1,680 total games played for his career are the seventh-most in NHL history and the most ever by a defenseman. Thornton, by the way, is just ahead of him in sixth place at 1,714 games played.
"Across his exceptional 24-year career, Zdeno put forth an unparalleled combination of size, strength, and ability each time he took the ice," said Bruins president and fellow Hall of Famer Cam Neely. "He kept opponents on notice with his commanding physicality and set the tone for his teammates with a stout defensive acumen, all while having the power at any given time to unleash one of the hardest shots ever recorded. His legendary leadership qualities were also continually on display, particularly when it came to his renowned off-ice conditioning which set a standard for all our players to follow. To put it simply, Zdeno’s skill set stands among the most unique in the century-plus history of the National Hockey League, making him enormously worthy of enshrinement into the Hockey Hall of Fame where he will be remembered forever as one of the very best to play our sport.”
Joining Chara, Thornton and Parker in the 2025 Hall of Fame class are Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, Jennifer Botterill, Brianna Decker and Daniele Sauvageau (builder category).
Parker coached the Terriers for 40 years from 1973-2013 and won three national championships in 1978, 1995 and 2009. Botterill played college hockey at Harvard from 1998-2003 and won three Olympic gold medals for Canada. Decker's Hall of Fame career included three years playing in Boston -- with the CWHL's Boston Blades in 2014-15 and then the NWHL's Boston Pride from 2015-17.