Snapshots: Chara, Engelland, Virtanen

While some players will need to act quickly to get a contract, that won’t be the case for veteran defenseman Zdeno Chara.  His agent Matt Keator told Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link) that the veteran defenseman will take his time to decide on his plans for next season and that several teams have already reached out to talk about a deal for 2020-21.  The 43-year-old isn’t the Norris-caliber player that he once was but still logged 21 minutes a night of ice time last season while chipping in with 14 points in 68 games.  He’s best suited for a more limited role at this stage of his career and would fit in nicely on the third pairing for quite a few teams if he’s open to leaving Boston.

Elsewhere around the league:

• Deryk Engelland’s time with the Golden Knights appears to have come to an end. GM Kelly McCrimmon told reporters, including Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, that there probably won’t be an opportunity for the 38-year-old veteran to return to Vegas.  Engelland spent the last three seasons with them after being selected in the expansion draft but was relegated to a reserve role down the stretch and in the playoffs as he failed to suit up in any of their 20 postseason contests.
• The deadline to file for arbitration is at 4:00 PM CT today but Jake Virtanen isn’t waiting that long as Sportsnet’s Irfaan Gaffar reports (Twitter link) that the Canucks winger has already filed. The 24-year-old had 18 goals and 18 assists in 69 games this season despite a drop in playing time but he was much quieter in the playoffs, tallying just twice with a lone assist in 16 contests while spending some time on their fourth line.  Virtanen was tendered a $1.4MM qualifying offer earlier this week and should come in considerably higher than that with or without his case going to a hearing.