Zdeno Chara played his first game with the Isles before a handful of current Isles were even born

There are a few guys around the NHL that just keep going and going and going. While father-time-combatant poster boy Jaromir Jagr has returned to the Czech Republic (where he just scored as a 49 year old), there are three remaining NHLers that debuted in the 90s; Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Zdeno Chara.

Perpetual subjects of “what was happening in the world when…” style posts, Thornton, Marleau, and Chara simply will not retire. While many believe the end of the road may have been reached by Marleau this season, longtime Sharks teammate Thronton signed a new deal to join the Florida Panthers.

Not to be outdone (or… outlasted, rather), it was announced on Saturday that Chara had agreed to terms on a one-year deal to re-join the New York Islanders.

We don’t have the monetary terms of the deal yet, but nobody really seems to care too much. Everyone is more just thrilled about the full-circle nature of this story, as Chara began his career playing parts of four seasons with the Isles.

His last season with the team came way back in 2000-01 after debuting on November 19, 1997. To put that into perspective, Chara’s new teammates Mat Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier were born just a few months earlier.

While Barzal and Beauvillier were technically in existence when Chara debuted, a handful of current Isles players were not.

Here’s a list of four Islanders that were not born when Chara debuted, and have now played at least one NHL game.

Kieffer Bellows: Born June 10^th, 1998 – 22 career regular season NHL games.

Otto Koivula: Born September 1^st, 1998 – 12 career regular season NHL games.

Noah Dobson: Born January 7^th, 2000 – 80 career regular season NHL games + 20 playoff games.

Oliver Wahlstrom: Born – Born June 13^th, 2000 – 53 career regular season NHL games + 5 playoff games.

Big Z may need to change his nickname to Grandpa Z if he hangs around the league much longer!