Ex-Bruin Chris Kelly signs with Ottawa Senators
35-year-old center won a cup with Boston in 2011.
Chris Kelly’s time in Boston has ended.
The 35 year-old center signed a one-year deal with the Ottawa Senators worth $900,000. This marks the end of a 5-year run with the Bruins that began when former GM Peter Chiarelli traded a 2nd-round pick to the Senators for the hard-nosed Kelly in February 2011.
Kelly’s final season in Boston didn’t end as well as his first, with Kelly finishing the season on injured reserve after playing in only 11 games before fracturing his femur in early November. Kelly concludes his Bruins career having appeared in 288 regular season games and scoring 43 goals and 58 assists.
Kelly had been a mainstay on the third line with Boston, with much of his value being tied to his usefulness as a penalty killer. Kelly was also an alternate captain, and his defensive versatility and leadership made him a favorite of head coach Claude Julien.
His best season as a Bruin came in 2011, when he scored 20 goals and finished with a plus/minus of 33, but his production has been declining since then. After 2011, the left-shot center scored just 21 goals and finished with a collective plus/minus of just 3 in his last four seasons.
Boston had expressed interest in re-signing Kelly, but with the recent addition of David Backes, bringing back Kelly would create a logjam at an already crowded center position with Backes, David Krecji, Patrice Bergeron, and Ryan Spooner all still on the roster.
Kelly’s departure comes just a week after the buy-out of Dennis Seidenberg, another key contributor in the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup run.
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