Boston Bruins: The Final Year of Chris Kelly
With most players locked up and free agency winding down, it is time to look at the members of the Boston Bruins who are in the last year of their respective contracts. In this article, we will determine what Chris Kelly needs to do in his final year, and whether or not he will return to the Black and Gold.
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Chris Kelly has been good to the Boston Bruins since the minute he arrived. He has always done everything that was asked of him and has never been an overbearing issue in any way. However, like with many other players, former Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli gave Kelly too much money. This led to fans and reporters speaking negatively about the play of Kelly and how it is not matching the value that he was purchased for. Chiarelli has always had a bad habit of giving players a contract based more on what they deserve because of what they have already done instead of giving them a contract based on what they are capable of doing in the future. Chris Kelly was a victim of this bad habit.
Jan 7, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Boston Bruins center Chris Kelly (23) skates on the ice before playing the Pittsburgh Penguins at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
So, what does Kelly have to do this year? The same thing he does every year. Like I said, he has never been a super liability to the Bruins and is trusted by the coaching staff to play tough minutes and kill penalties. With his role most likely falling from third line to fourth line permanently this year, Kelly will have less of a workload which should translate into more energy per shift.
Personally, I like that Kelly is on our fourth line, since he typically would expect to go up against tougher lines. This could play to the Bruins advantage throughout the year, especially with the experience that the younger, less experienced, potential fourth line players may get from playing with Kelly (Kemppainen, Rinaldo, Talbot, Griffith, Ferlin, etc.). He is also an excellent depth player when it comes to injuries. Claude Julien will not hesitate moving Kelly up to the third line position in the event of an injury, trade or poor performance from the top six forwards.
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Puck Prose
Chris Kelly is in his last year with Boston, so he will be playing for some sort of contract. I don’t believe that he will get the $3 million that he had been receiving thus far, and I also don’t think that the Bruins will resign him. Boston just has too many players that are ready to push for that fourth line that would be more affordable and younger (Anthony Camara, Seth Griffith, Brian Ferlin). So, I feel that in his final year, Chris Kelly will be, above all else, playing to prove to himself that he can still be an effective player in the NHL. For his sake, I hope he can be, and I wish him all the success in the world with whatever he ends up deciding to do when his contract with Boston comes to an end.