Chris Kelly (ice hockey)

Chris Kelly

Kelly in 2013.
Born (1980-11-11) November 11, 1980
Toronto, ON, CAN
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 198 lb (90 kg; 14 st 2 lb)
Position Center/Left Wing
Shoots Left
NHL team
Former teams		 Boston Bruins
Ottawa Senators
NHL Draft 94th overall, 1999
Ottawa Senators
Playing career 2004–present

Christopher Kelly (born November 11, 1980) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward currently playing for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). Kelly has also previously played in the NHL for the Ottawa Senators, the organization that drafted him in the fourth round, 94th overall, in 1999. He is an alternate captain for the Bruins during away games and was a member of Boston's 2011 Stanley Cup-winning team.

Playing career

Junior

Kelly was born in Toronto and grew up one hour east of the city in Bowmanville. He started playing in the Clarington Recreational Hockey League and with the Clarington Toros AA program. For one year, he played for the Toronto Marlboros bantam team and then OHA Jr. A. hockey with the Aurora Tigers. Kelly was then selected in the fourth round, 56th overall, by the Ontario Hockey League (OHL)'s London Knights in the 1997 OHL Priority Selection.

At the major junior level, Kelly played for both the Knights and the Sudbury Wolves. In 1998–99, he scored 36 goals, his career-high scoring mark in the OHL. He also played for the Team Orr in the mid-season at the CHL Top Prospects Game. In the OHL playoffs, he scored nine goals and 26 points in 25 games as the Knights reached the OHL Final.

Professional

Ottawa Senators

Kelly in 2009 as a member of the Ottawa Senators.

Kelly was drafted 94th overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He spent one year in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Grand Rapids Griffins and three seasons in the same league with the Binghamton Senators. He also played with the Muskegon Fury (of the UHL) for four games (recovering from an injury). In 2004–05, he had finished fifth in the AHL in plus-minus with +30. He also finished fifth on Binghamton with 60 points, as the team finished fourth overall in the League. When he was a professional rookie in 2001–02, he helped the Griffins finish fourth in the AHL. In his two final seasons in Binghamton, Kelly served as team captain.

Kelly made his NHL debut on February 5, 2004, in a match against the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of four games he appeared in with Ottawa during 2003–04. In his rookie season of 2005–06, he became a regular in Ottawa's lineup, appearing in all of the team's 82 games and registering 30 points whilst playing in a checking role. The following season, he was a member of the Senators team that advanced to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals.[1]

On July 31, 2007, he re-signed with the Senators to a one-year contract worth $1.263 million. Kelly was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2008, but again re-signed with the Senators on a four-year contract extension worth $8.5 million on June 20, 2008.

Boston Bruins

As part of a rebuilding process undertaken by the Senators as the 2010–11 season was concluding, Kelly was dealt to the Boston Bruins on February 15, 2011, for a second-round draft pick in 2011; Ottawa later used the pick to select forward Shane Prince. On June 15, 2011, Kelly and the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup in seven games over the Vancouver Canucks.

On April 12, 2012, Kelly scored the game-winning goal in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the Washington Capitals; the Bruins ultimately lost the series in seven games.

A pending unrestricted free agent as the 2011–12 season wrapped up, Kelly was rumored to be returning to the Senators,[2] though he ended up re-signing with the Bruins on June 11, 2012, agreeing to a four-year, $12 million contract.[3] The deal, however, was quickly rejected by the NHL due to what then-Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli referred to as "payroll tagging issues."[4]

As the 2013–14 season began on October 3, 2013, with a home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Kelly had his first-ever chance at a penalty shot in his NHL career in the first period of the game; he converted the penalty shot, scoring the first Bruins goal of the season against goaltender Anders Lindbäck while the Bruins were in a short-handed situation en route to an eventual 3–1 home victory.[5] The goal marked the first time in NHL history that a team scored its first goal of the season via a penalty shot.[6]

In his sixth year with the Bruins in the 2015–16 season, and in the final year of the his contract, Kelly began the campaign leading the Bruins penalty-kill. Kelly scored 2 goals in 11 games before on November 3, 2015, he buckled his left leg on the ice and broke his left femur in a game against the Dallas Stars.[7] He was announced to have undergone surgery the following day and was scheduled to have a 6-8 month recovery period, which effectively ruled him out for the season.[8]

Personal life

Kelly married during the summer of 2008 in Mexico.[9] He met his wife Krissy Broderick while attending Saunders Secondary School as a member of the London Knights as a teenager; Broderick now teaches elementary school in Ottawa.[10]

Career statistics

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1995–96 Toronto Marlboros MTHL 42 25 45 70 25 — — — — —
1996–97 Aurora Tigers OHA 49 14 20 34 11 — — — — —
1997–98 London Knights OHL 54 15 14 29 4 16 4 5 9 12
1998–99 London Knights OHL 68 36 41 77 60 25 9 17 26 22
1999–00 London Knights OHL 63 29 43 72 57 — — — — —
2000–01 London Knights OHL 31 21 34 55 46 — — — — —
2000–01 Sudbury Wolves OHL 19 5 16 21 17 12 11 5 16 14
2001–02 Muskegon Fury UHL 4 1 2 3 0 — — — — —
2001–02 Grand Rapids Griffins AHL 31 3 3 6 20 5 1 1 2 5
2002–03 Binghamton Senators AHL 77 17 14 31 73 14 2 3 5 8
2003–04 Binghamton Senators AHL 54 15 19 34 40 2 0 0 0 4
2003–04 Ottawa Senators NHL 4 0 0 0 0 — — — — —
2004–05 Binghamton Senators AHL 77 24 36 60 57 6 1 2 3 1
2005–06 Ottawa Senators NHL 82 10 20 30 76 10 0 0 0 0
2006–07 Ottawa Senators NHL 82 15 23 38 40 20 3 4 7 4
2007–08 Ottawa Senators NHL 75 11 19 30 30 — — — — —
2008–09 Ottawa Senators NHL 82 12 11 23 38 — — — — —
2009–10 Ottawa Senators NHL 81 15 17 32 38 6 1 5 6 2
2010–11 Ottawa Senators NHL 57 12 11 23 27 — — — — —
2010–11 Boston Bruins NHL 24 2 3 5 6 25 5 8 13 6
2011–12 Boston Bruins NHL 82 20 19 39 41 7 1 2 3 4
2012–13 Martigny Red Ice NLB 8 4 5 9 8 — — — — —
2012–13 Boston Bruins NHL 34 3 6 9 16 22 2 1 3 19
2013–14 Boston Bruins NHL 57 9 9 18 32 — — — — —
2014–15 Boston Bruins NHL 80 7 21 28 48 — — — — —
2015–16 Boston Bruins NHL 11 2 0 2 0 — — — — —
NHL totals 751 118 159 277 392 90 12 20 32 37

References

  1. ↑ Allen Panzeri (2007-10-25). "Stats don't tell Kelly's story". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  2. ↑ "Sens should re-sign tough duo". Canoe.ca. 2012-06-05. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  3. ↑ "Bruins agree to terms on new deals for Kelly and Campbell". The Sports Network]]. 2012-06-11. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  4. ↑ "NHL rejects Kelly contract". Canoe.ca. 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2012-06-14.
  5. ↑ Kalman, Matt (October 3, 2013). "Bruins beat Lightning in season-opener". www.nhl.com. National Hockey League. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Bruins subdue Lightning in opener". Boston Globe. 2013-10-03. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  7. ↑ "Seguin dominates as Stars beat Bruins". The Sports Network. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  8. ↑ "Kelly's fractured Femur a major blow to Bruins leadership, penalty-kill". NESN. 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  9. ↑ Garrioch, Bruce (September 16, 2008). "NHL Team Reports: Summer Vacation". The Hockey News. p. 49.
  10. ↑ Kressman, Jim (May 11, 2006). "Kelly finding feet with Sens". Slam! Sports. Retrieved 2008-11-05.

External links

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