With Chara now in a Capitals shirt, here are some other guys who looked weird without Bruins jerseys

Zdeno Chara hasn’t played his entire career with the Bruins. The future Hall of Fame defenseman started his NHL career with the Islanders in 1997, moved to Ottawa in the 2001 Alexei Yashin trade, and signed with Boston as a free agent in 2006.

But Chara won his Norris Trophy with the Bruins, won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins, and was captain of the Bruins. After 14 seasons in The Hub, Chara in a Capitals jersey this season is going to be a weird and uncomfortable sight.

Of course, Chara isn’t the first player to move on from Boston at the end of his career. Here’s a look back at some other Bruins greats who looked weird in another team’s colors.

The Bruins’ all-time leader in games played with 1,518 and assists with 1,111, Bourque could have played his whole career in Boston, but as he was winding down and the team was going nowhere, he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in 2000, along with Dave Andreychuk, for Brian Rolston, Martin Grenier, Sami Pahlsson and a first-round pick. The five-time Norris winner scored eight goals in 14 games down the stretch in 2000, but had to wait one more year to hoist the Cup, going out on top after winning it all with the 2001 Avalanche.

After taking over for Hall of Famer Tiny Thompson early in the 1938-39 season, Brimsek backstopped the Bruins to the Stanley Cup and won the first of his two Vezina Trophies. Brimsek also was second in the Hart Trophy voting in 1948. But a year and a half later, on the eve of the 1949-50 season, he was traded to Chicago for cash, making room for Jack Gelineau to take over in net for Boston. Gelineau won the Calder Trophy in 1950, but didn’t have the career of his Hall of Fame predecessors.

A four-time Vezina Trophy winner in the 1930s, Thompson started the 1938-39 season in net for a Bruins team that went on to win the Stanley Cup, and he was just fine, going 3-1-1 with a 1.55 goals against average. But he was 35, and the Bruins had another future Hall of Famer, 23-year-old Frank Brimsek, ready to take over in net. So the Bruins traded Thompson to the Red Wings for Normie Smith and $15,000. Thompson played that season and 1939-40 in Detroit, then went into coaching.

A classic 1980s power forward who was good for 20-plus goals and triple-digit penalty minutes each season, Crowder trails only Terry O’Reilly and Mike Milbury for career time spent in the penalty box as a Bruin. After nine seasons in black and gold, Crowder went to the Kings as a free agent, playing 55 games in Los Angeles and ending his career after one season.

A five-time scoring champion and two-time Stanley Cup champion in Boston, Esposito still was a hell of a player when the Bruins traded him and Carol Vadanis to the Rangers in 1975 for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, and Joe Zanussi. But even while putting up 30 goals four times with the Blueshirts, Esposito wasn’t the same player he was with the Bruins, where he made his Hall of Fame bones. He did, however, make an amazing jeans commercial in New York.

The Bruins’ eighth all-time leading goal scorer and a three-time All-Star in Boston, Hodge was sent to the Rangers after the 1975-76 season. He played only 96 games in New York, while the player the Bruins got back, Rick Middleton, wound up surpassing Hodge’s goal total in Boston, winding up with 402 for third place on the team’s leaderboard.

The greatest defenseman in hockey history was a two-time league scoring champion with the Bruins and an eight-time Norris Trophy winner. It’s bizarre to think about the fact that he was only 28 years old when he played his final game with the Bruins, having registered 888 points in 631 games for Boston. But Orr’s career was done in by knee injuries, and he wound up in Chicago, playing a total of 26 games over three seasons — and with 27 points, when he was able to skate, he was still great — before retiring.

Old time hockey, right? Shore won the Cup with the Bruins in 1929 and 1939, and wound up as part of the second class of players inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947. But as much as he’s remembered as one of the first legendary Bruins, Shore wrapped things up in New York, playing 10 games after Boston traded him to the Americans for Ed Wiseman and $5,000 in 1940.

The general manager who decided not to bring Chara back to Boston was once on the other end of such a decision not to keep a long-term Bruin in town. Sweeney played 1,052 games for the Bruins from 1988-2003, an elite stay-at-home defenseman at his peak. For 2003-04, Sweeney went to Dallas, playing the final 63 games of his career for a team that had high hopes of a Stanley Cup, but wound up losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Avalanche.