THN Archive: Moving Zdeno Chara and Ziggy Palffy Became Disaster for Islanders

It was a New York Islanders tale of two Z's on the cover of a 1997 issue of The Hockey News. Little did Islanders fans know what would come in the years ahead to Zdeno Chara and Ziggy Palffy.

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Today’s curated post comes from the Sept. 26, 1997 issue – Vol. 51, Issue 3 – and a story from Bob McKenzie on Hockey Hall of Fame contender and former star defenseman Zdeno Chara.

In McKenzie’s feature on Chara, he spoke to a slew of hockey people, all raving at Chara’s potential. Chara was just 20 years old at that time and property of the New York Islanders.  

The Isles traded him in 2001 to the Ottawa Senators along with forward Bill Muckalt and the Isles’ first-round draft pick (which the Sens used to select Jason Spezza) in exchange for Alexei Yashin. Needless to say, this turned out to be grand larceny for the Senators, and it was one of the reasons success has eluded the Islanders for so long after their dynastic era of the early 1980s.

It’s hard to fathom how Isles GM Mike Milbury traded Chara, who was raved about in McKenzie’s story. Milbury himself said, “(W)e do believe we have a potential diamond” in Chara. 

“He’s an exceptionally nice kid,” Milbury said. “He’s an exceptionally hard worker. He’s an exceptional passer who makes good plays. The most remarkable thing is that he’s as in control as he is for being that big. This is not a gangly, unco-ordinated kid.”

Other hockey experts agreed.

“He was fabulous (in the 1997 WHL playoffs), just dominant,” said longtime Anaheim Ducks executive Dave McNab. “To be that size and as talented and tough as he is…he’s a monster. He was like a big bear out there, swatting away flies. He’s a real blue-chipper.”

As for Chara himself, he told McKenzie his early days playing hockey in his native Slovakia included a lot of blowback due to his robust physical game.

“Coaches didn’t like me because I was always in the penalty box,” Chara said in the story. “My elbow, other player’s face, always.”

Of course, Chara would thrive as soon as he arrived in Ottawa, and the Senators made a huge tactical error when they allowed him to leave as a UFA in 2006 and instead invested their salary into veteran Wade Redden, a decent-enough player but certainly not one who could bring to the table what Chara did.

Interestingly, also on this THN cover is longtime NHL star winger Ziggy Palffy, who played for the Isles from 1994 until Milbury dealt him and fellow forward Bryan Smolinski to the L.A. Kings in 1999 in return for forwards Olli Jokinen and Josh Green, defenseman Mathieu Biron and a first-round pick. 

Once again, the Isles were on the losing end of a major trade, and you can see how their fans have suffered for a very long time. Trading one of Chara or Palffy would’ve been bad enough, but moving them both was inexcusable. And giving up on an eventual Stanley Cup winner in Chara was especially distressing.

“He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever seen,” Chara’s agent Ritch Winter said in the story. “He’s so focused. Z’s World is a wonderful place to be if you’re an invited guest because he really is a kind, gentle soul off the ice, but if you’re not an invited guest…it will be interesting to see how Z’s World treats the NHL.”

As a Norris Trophy and Stanley Cup winner and the man who set a new league record for most games played by a blueliner, Chara treated the NHL extremely well. Enjoy the original story below.

Vol. 51, Issue 3, Sept. 26, 1997

By Bob McKenzie

Perhaps it’s as easy to explain as Newton’s Law, that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Or maybe it’s nothing more than the good Lord’s sense of fair play. That is, if He saw it to deliver to the world a punishing 6-foot-5 behemoth with world-class skill by the name of Eric Lindros, then why not create a brutish 6-foot-9 defenseman by the name of Zdeno Chara who is blessed with the armaments to battle the NHL’s biggest, baddest and best on an equal footing?

Zdeno who? Big E, meet Big Z. And to all others, welcome to Z’s World.

It was eight years ago when The Hockey News first began beating the drum for a 16-year-old Lindros, touting him as the game’s NBT (Next Big Thing). Amid a myriad of accusations of overkill, exaggeration and manufactured hype, THN continued to proclaim that Lindros would one day be something special. Extraordinary. And last spring’s Stanley Cup debacle notwithstanding, Lindros has made good on the claims that today seem an overstatement of the obvious.

Now, in the spirit of society’s credo (nothing succeeds like excess) and THN tradition, it behooves us to begin spreading the gospel of Z.

Zdeno Chara is going to make it big. Trust us.

At 6-foot-9 and 247 pounds-he’s officially listed at 6-foot-8, but insists he’s actually an inch taller and far be it for us to argue with him-the truth is he can’t miss. If nothing else, he’ll go into the NHL record book as the league’s biggest player, one inch taller than (or at worst, right alongside) 6-foot-8 Steve McKenna, who debuted with the Los Angeles Kings last March.

Yet Chara, 20, the New York Islanders’ third-round pick in 1996, yearns for so much more.

“I don’t want to be known just as the tallest player,” Chara told THN. “I want to be known as a talented player. Big respect, that is what I’m looking for.”

Many say he won’t be disappointed.

“I’m trying to control myself,” said Islanders’ GM Mike Milbury, “but, yes, we do believe we have a potential diamond. He’s an exceptionally nice kid. He’s an exceptionally hard worker. He’s an exceptional passer who makes good plays. The most remarkable thing is that he’s as in control as he is for being that big. This is not a gangly, uncoordinated kid.

“He’s a good skater. If there’s any criticism, it’s that he has to work on his foot speed, but it’s not bad, it’s solid. He has got a real good shot at making it this year, but honestly I don’t even care whether he makes our club right off. It’s not a matter of if he’ll play, but when he’ll play.”

After watching the virtual unknown play just one season with the Prince George Cougars of the Western League, including a stellar effort in the playoffs, other NHL teams have recognized he’s the one who got away in the 1996 entry draft.

“He was fabulous (in last season’s WHL playoffs), just dominant,” said 6-foot-6 Anaheim Mighty Ducks’ assistant GM Dave McNab. “To be that size and as talented and tough as he is…he’s a monster. He was a like a big bear out there swatting away flies. He’s a real blue-chipper.”

“He has a chance to be exceptional, a real impact player in the NHL,” said Seattle Thunderbirds’ GM Russ Farwell, who was GM of the Flyers when they acquired Lindros from the Quebec Nordiques. “The eerie thing is that if he’s not standing beside someone on the ice, you forget that he’s 6-foot-9 because he isn’t awkward at all.”

As for this talk of Big E and Big Z in the same breath - the Big E-Z, no? - it is, of course, patently unfair, just as it was comparing a 16-year-old Lindros to everyone from Gordie Howe to Jean Beliveau to Mark Messier to Mario Lemieux. As talented as Chara may be, he isn’t going to be an offensive dynamo in the mold of, say. Brian Leetch.

But that’s missing the point. He’s 6-foot-9, for crying out loud. A good four inches and 20 pounds heavier than Lindros right now. If he were nothing more than a big slug-Chara stands 6-foot-2 on skates-he could at least inconvenience Lindros in front of the net. But Chara is a bona fide prospect, above average in almost every regard. The Flyers and Islanders play in the same division. Think about the long-term possibilities.

“You’re on to something there,” Milbury said. “We’re all drafting players who are 6-5, 6-6, 6-7 and now 6-8, hoping like hell they’ll develop into something. We all know why we need ‘em.”

Farwell was even more direct.

“I told (Flyer GM) Bob Clarke last October, ‘You’re going to hate this guy, he could be (the Flyers’) worst nightmare,’ “Farwell said. “He can skate, pass, shoot, hit. fight…he could be a monster. He might need time to develop, maybe play in the minors, but this kid could be the talk of the NHL in two years. I really think the Isles might have hit the jackpot on this one.”

So, who is this kid and what planet did he come from? Why, Z’s World, of course.

He comes by his size and athletic ability honestly. His father, Zdeno Sr., is a massively built 6-foot-1 former Greco-Roman wrestler who competed for Czechoslovakia in the 1976 Olympics. His mother, Veronica, is a 6-foot-1 former volleyball player and sister Barbara, who used to be a competitive swimmer, is 6 feet.

Two years ago, he was playing for an obscure junior team in his hometown of Trencin, Slovakia, being hassled by club officials to play for the organization’s basketball team.

“They didn’t have (hockey) equipment to fit him,” said Marshall Johnston, then an Islander scout and now director of player personnel for the Ottawa Senators. “They wanted to make him a basketball player.”

Chara would have none of that. He was discovered by one of Edmonton player agent Rich Winter’s birddogs. Those were the contributing factors in a mid-season move to Prague to play for the Sparta club. Viewing by NHL scouts was extremely limited-a handful might have seen him play a couple of games in Prague-and there weren’t likely to be any ringing endorsements from Slovak or Czech hockey officials. In truth, Chara was almost reviled at home because of his all-out aggressive approach, the antithesis of Euro-hockey.

“Coaches didn’t like me because I was always in the penalty box,” Chara said. “My elbow, other player’s face, always.”

He couldn’t wait to get to North America. He accompanied Winter to the NHL draft in St. Louis and upon arrival on American soil announced to his agent, “I’m never going home.” And he hasn’t.

On size alone. Chara was guaranteed of being drafted. But it was the Isles who stepped up at No. 56.

“Our scouts wanted to take him in the second round but I said no,” Milbury said. “They’d only seen him live a couple of times and we had this videotape of him doing drills in practice. That wasn’t enough to go on. Fortunately for us, he was still there in the third round.”

The Isles still didn’t quite realize what they’d done. Winter, though, was quickly getting the picture. Chara moved into the Edmonton home of Boston Bruins’ first rounder Jonathan Aitken. Soon after, the Big Z enrolled in boxing lessons.

“Fighting, hitting, it’s part of the game and I like it,” Chara said of his decision to take boxing, adding that his father taught him “some stuff to protect myself, but not just for hockey.”

Chara was placed with the WHL Cougars and immediately made himself at home.

“Big Z’s a terrific kid,” said Stan Butler, who coached the Cougars last season. “He’s got great talent and, of course, size, but he also has terrific character and a great personality. The kids loved him. He fit right in.”

Not that there weren’t trials and tribulations - such as finding clothes to fit him or sticks with which he was comfortable. The Cougars had to tack on eight inches of material to his sweater’s sleeves and an extra 12 inches on the body of the sweater.

But it was on the ice where he made an incredible impact. Though he broke his wrist in mid-season, he collected three goals, 22 points and 130 penalty minutes in 49 games. During the Cougars’ surprising run to the WHL semifinal, he earned one goal, eight points and 45 PIM in 15 games.

The numbers don’t do his physical presence justice. By his own count, he was in “at least 20 fights” last season. The vast majority of them were clear decisions, such as the time he KO’d Portland Winter Hawks’ tough guy Joey Tetarenko, who couldn’t play the next game because of a concussion.

“He’d never really dropped the gloves in a real fight before last season and then he fought all comers, all the WHL tough guys,” Butler said. “He’s a natural and it doesn’t hurt his hands are about the twice the size of anybody else’s.”

Oh, did we mention he can also bench press 300 pounds, give or take 20?

“He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever seen,” Winter said. “He’s so focused. Z’s World is a wonderful place to be if you’re an invited guest because he really is a kind, gentle soul off the ice, but if you’re not an invited guest…it will be interesting to see how Z’s World treats the NHL.”

If Chara turns out to be the real thing, this “Z’s World” thing has some possibilities. To be on the safe side, Winter has registered it as a trademark. For now, though, Chara just laughs about the phrase that was first coined on a sportscast showing a highlight of one of his fights. The announcer said, “Welcome to Z’s World.” It’s been a running joke with him since.

When the season ended in Prince George, Z was short on cash so Butler arranged to get him a job, at about seven bucks an hour, washing cars at the local GM dealership. But cash flow won’t be a problem from here on in. Chara signed a three-year contract with the Islanders for $2.625 million in the summer. It was the maximum allowable under terms of the NHL’s rookie salary limitations, first round money for a third rounder.

“I was shocked,” he said of his windfall. “I didn’t know what to do (with the money).”

Suffice to say he figured it out. Nice clothes (lots of Big ’n’ Tall selections on Long Island) and a Jeep Cherokee.

Milbury likes what he sees of the teenager and how he’s handling himself. While hanging around the Islanders’ business office one day, he got into a conversation with a marketing department employee who was stuffing envelopes for a mailing. Next thing you know, Chara was helping to stuff envelopes.

“He did it for a good half hour,” Milbury said. “He’s just a very nice kid.”

And a committed one. At camp, the Isles’ players were on a 1-1/2 mile run, to be completed in nine minutes or less. In his group of 15 players, Chara finished first, clocking in at 8:45.

“And he was ticked off because he miscounted the laps,” Milbury said. “He thought he had one lap left and was prepared to really finish with a flourish. We’re talking better than a six-minute mile for any that size.”

His overall adjustment is being helped by the fact he has fellow Slovak Zigmund Palffy, who’s also from Trencin, to lean on. But the Islanders, excited as they may be with Chara’s potential, are trying not to get ahead of themselves. So, too, is Z.

“I move okay for my size, but it will get better in a year or two,” Chara said. “I would love to stay with the Islanders, but it’s up to the coach. This is the best league in the world.”

And as the running joke goes, if Chara can’t play for the Islanders, they can always cut a deal with the New York Knicks. “Slam dunk?” Chara said. “No problem for me…from the back court.”

Welcome to Z’s World.

THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit the archives at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com