Chris Kelly now an ex-Bruins center after signing with Senators

Share

The Bruins lost a key part of their leadership group on Thursday with Chris Kelly returning to the Ottawa Senators in free agency and singing a one-year deal with the team that drafted and developed the two-way center.

Kelly signed a one-year contract worth $900,000 with Ottawa after the 35-year-old and the Bruins weren’t able to come to terms on a contract extension leading up to the July 1 opening of free agency. Kelly finished with 43 goals and 101 points in 288 regular-season games for the Bruins over the past five seasons after arriving in a deadline deal during the B’s push to the Stanley Cup in 2011. He missed significant time in three of the past four seasons in Boston with an assortment of leg and back injuries.

Kelly played in only 11 games last season after he sustained a fractured left femur and was only fully cleared medically in the final few weeks of June around the NHL draft. The Bruins had maintained an interest in retaining Kelly even after July 1 and Kelly did provide toughness, intelligence, experience and a willingness to hold others accountable within the Bruins dressing room.

Still, it also sounds like David Backes will be bringing all of those important qualities to Boston after signing a five-year deal with the Black and Gold and that addition perhaps made Kelly’s leadership strengths something the Bruins could afford to let walk away.

So, the Bruins saying goodbye to both Dennis Seidenberg and Kelly in the same offseason leaves them without a couple of gritty, defensive warriors that served important roles in bringing the Cup back to Boston.

Kelly was a third round pick (94th overall) in the 1999 draft by the Senators and posted 75 goals and 176 points in 463 games in seven seasons with Ottawa prior to getting traded to Boston for a second-round pick that turned into Shane Prince. 

 

Contact Us