Zdeno Chara's career may be over.

Veteran National Hockey League defenseman Zdeno Chara can only be described as a freak athlete. Not only is the Slovakian defenseman freakishly agile and athletic for a man of his tremendous size, but at 45 years of age he was still competiting against the best hockey players in the world as a member of the New York Islanders.

Chara has had one of the most incredible careers of any defenseman that has ever laced up the skates in the NHL, but sadly it sounds like Chara's incredible nd improbable career may finally be winding down. Now to be clear there has been no official announcement from Chara, or anyone else from that matter, however in his most recent Sunday Notes column Toronto sports journalist Steve Simmons has indicated that the word going around the league is that Chara's storied career has come to an end.

From Simmons:

The guessing around the NHL is that Zdeno Chara has played his last game. For those counting, that’s 1,880 regular season and playoff games. A lifetime — and then some — for the future Hall of Famer …

As Simmons correctly points out, there's no question that Chara will eventually enter the hockey hall of fame to be enshrined alongside the other greats of the sport. Not only is Chara a former Stanley Cup Champion as a member of the 2011 Boston Bruins, but he is also a former AHL All-Star, a 6-time NHL All-Star, a former Norris TRophy winner, a multiple time silver medalist on the international stage, and he also holds the current NHL record for most games played by an NHL defenseman with 1,680 regular season games under his belt. I may be wrong, but that is a record I doubt very much we will ever see surpassed.

If Chara does indeed retire it could also truly signal the end of an era. Chara, alongside fellow NHL player Joe Thornton, are the only active athletes in any of the 4 major sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) to have played during the 1990s. Given that Thornton is also currently unsigned, this offseason may mark the final chapter in their era of the NHL.