Late last January, buried amidst a flurry of trade talk and a lost season, the Boston Bruins announced that Zdeno Chara would be returning to Boston as a consultant, but nothing else emerged.

Since then, the two sides have convened and, according to Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney, are close to announcing a more formal role for the Hall of Fame defenseman. 

"For him to be coming back to join us," Sweeney said Wednesday afternoon at Warrior Ice Arena. "And to impart the leadership and mentorship role, advisory role, I think is really exciting for the organization."

"In the last few weeks, he got back from Europe," Sweeney said, "met with Marco, and they have spent some time together to sort of streamline, identify, and put some guardrails up in terms of where he's going to make his impact. So we'll be announcing that in the near future in what his defined role is."

Chara's experience speaks for itself. He played 1,023 games for Boston, serving as captain for every game he donned the Spoked B. After finishing his career with the New York Islanders, Chara signed a one-day contract to retire a Bruin. At his retirement ceremony, he emphasized what culture means to a team.

“Without that, you can’t win,” Chara said at his retirement ceremony about building a culture in Boston. “You need to have a culture. You need to have players that want to follow, and it wasn’t just me. It was a team effort. …. We had guys stepping in willing to come from other teams and adjust to that culture."

That's the exact thing this Bruins team needs. With all the upheaval that's happened, any type of advice and leadership Chara brings will be gold to these Bruins.