Zdeno Chara was spotted with the Bruins this week. What does it mean?

“I’m trying to stay low-key," Zdeno Chara told a photographer outside Warrior Ice Arena on Tuesday.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

This story originally appeared in Sunday Hockey Notes. Read the rest here.

It has been a summer of reunions for the Bruins, who welcomed back Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci on one-year deals, and gave Tuukka Rask an ambassadorship role.

What’s next for Zdeno Chara?

Agent Matt Keator said there was nothing to report when Chara was spotted by the Globe at Warrior Ice Arena this week. He was leaving the building with a bag, marked by a Pine Street Inn logo, that held black and gold objects that looked like kids’ hockey gloves. He popped into the New Balance store on that Brighton block, smiled and said a few cheery words to a photographer, and left in his Mercedes-Benz sedan.

With five left-shot defenders on one-way contracts, the Bruins don’t seem likely to have room for Chara, 45 — though more injuries could change that. Perhaps another East Coast team, not too far from Boston, will have a sudden need.

This seems quite clear: Whenever Chara decides he is done, a role with the Bruins is his if he wants it. The team would be silly not to offer.

“He goes down as one of the best and greatest,” general manager Don Sweeney said earlier this summer, when asked about Chara’s Boston legacy (a reporter was trying to get ahead of a possible retirement).

“Really ultimately changed the culture of where the group was when he came on board and won a Stanley Cup and was a champion in this city, both on and off the ice and an iconic player, obviously, to have the most games played ever as a defenseman in the National Hockey League. That one might not be broken. As a person, just a really special individual on and off the ice.”