TOTW Chara (87) Review!

This guy has been on my squad for an estimate of atleast 600-700 games starting on my 1st defensive pairing and can now be found on my 3rd as the rest of my team got better. He's got unreal synergies (2B) that could be found on some "better" cards like TOTW Pietrangelo but this 6'9 250 pound Slovakian beauty stole my heart so I can never go back.

###TOTW Zdeno Chara

Synergies activated: 1T, B, TW

Pairing: (3rd pair) Doughty - Chara (Full Team)

Stats

GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM
162	22	47	69	+96	48

SKATING 6.5/10

Obviously Chara's skating is below average and it's often the biggest problem people have with him. It'd be wise to stick him in a pairing with a fast-ish defenseman to balance it out. After adding TW to the squad I didn't see a huge jump in his speed but I can definitely tell his agility got up and he's way quicker in turning around to go after the puck and he can skate around a bit more.

SHOOTING 8.5/10

His shot is definitely very interesting. It's either hit or miss as in it goes in beautifully or it misses the net by a mile but quite often with B and 1T activated he can atleast create some havok infront of the net due to rebounds. It's without a question the most powerful shot on my team and in the game and SURPRISINGLY accurate. His wrister isn't shabby either, if you get him in front of the goalie he can score farside just like pretty much anyone else in the game, he can just do it from further away and if it doesn't go in it might give you a solid opportunity for a rebound goal. Blueline onetimers are his speciality.

HANDS 6/10

Very slow, has failed me many times on a breakaway but only a madman would go with Chara on one. He keeps possession of the puck very well and can pass breakaways like a charm but deking? Forget it.

PHYSICAL 10/10

Chara doesn't like to be knocked down and he won't. He protects the puck with his absolute giant body amazingly and if someone wants to get him down they need to get some elbow going on and that ends up in a penalty more than enough times. He obviously lays body like no one else in the game with 94 body checking and he's always a treat to fight with with 91 fighting skill. You ain't going to win a net battle against Chara either.

DEFENSIVE 10/10

As we already discovered, Chara is very slow. If someone zooms past him you'd think that's the end of it but it isn't. Chara's got the biggest stick in the league which even if he's a bit behind allows him to pokecheck extraordinally well from there to screw up a breakaway for someone else. It also helps a lot with interrupting passes as he covers a lot of ground with it which pretty much means if you need to pass past Chara, just don't. He'll get ya then he'll smack ya. His massive frame also a huge attribute in shot blocking.

###CONCLUSION

He isn't very cheap for an 87 (bought him for around 60k) but he's the kind of defenseman that I love. Big body, big shots and big defensive plays. If you're looking for a shutdown defenseman for <100k he's definitely your guy and if you get him you need to get atleast that B going on to get the most out of him.