Touching Chara & Arbour Story: A Thumbnail Of Islanders Family

In our interview with former Islanders equipment manager Joe McMahon, he shared a story about one legend helping another.

Stefen Rosner, David Kolb, and The Elmonters

Aug 01, 2025

This weekend marks the 24th annual McMahon Family Golf Outing, benefiting the Hospice Care Network and the American Liver Foundation.

Joe McMahon is the Islanders’ former equipment manager, who started this fundraiser in 2001 after losing his mother, Lee, to brain cancer and his 18-month-old son, Aidan, to liver complications.

Joe and his brothers, Tom and Mike, have helped raise close to $2 million for the two foundations mentioned above, while uniting the Islanders alumni association with many former players coming down to a tremendous dinner on Friday night and a day on the golf course on Saturday.

To learn more about the Lee & Aidan McMahon Foundation, visit their website.

Ahead of the big weekend, I sat down with Joe to discuss the event, get some insight into what being an equipment manager entails on a day-to-day basis, and hear some stories about alumni.

Here’s the full audio interview, which is about 23 minutes of just awesome insight from Joe:

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After hearing one of the stories, I thought this would be perfect for an Elmonters Free Friday.

This specific story is about two-time Islanders defenseman and Hockey Hall of Famer Zdeno Chara.

Chara began his career on Long Island in 1997 before returning 21 years later to round out a 24-year NHL career, which came to an end following the 2021-22 campaign.

Everyone knows what Chara was on the ice: a mountain of a man, whose leadership was unmatched.

But what many aren’t privy to is what Chara was like away from the spotlight, something that Joe saw and heard about often.

“I spoke to Chara a couple of weeks ago. He's in Europe right now, and he can't make the event, but he's another amazing human being,” Joe McMahon said.

Story Time

“I texted him when he got into the Hall of Fame, and he wrote me such a beautiful text back. Again, he's a special person,” Joe said. “A quick little thing about Z is that he has a place down in Florida, and when Coach Arbour was still with us, he would go to the nursing home where Al was.

“He would try to get there once a week, and he would sit with him. And now Al was never Z's coach, but he would sit there, and he would feed him and talk to him and just be with him.”

Chara played for the Islanders starting in 1997-1998 after being drafted 56th overall in 1996.

Arbour retired as the Islanders’ head coach following the 1993-94 season after 1,499 games behind the bench. He did return to the bench on Nov. 3, 2007, to reach the 1,500-game mark, notching his 740th career victory.

Chara was not on the team in 2007, as he was traded to the Ottawa Senators ahead of the 2001-02 season in the Alexei Yashin deal.

He had no personal connection to one of, if not the greatest, NHL coaches of all time.

That didn’t matter when Chara was by Arbour’s bedside in Florida in 2015, as a member of the Boston Bruins.

“Chara would say to Al, ‘Listen, I'm an Islander, and I know who you are, even though you aren't my coach,’” Joe said. “Again, that just shows the character, the type of person that Zdeno Chara is. He's just an amazing person.”

No one should be shocked to read this story, as this is just the type of person Chara is.