{"id":23211,"date":"2018-02-12T11:14:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T16:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=23211"},"modified":"2018-02-27T12:57:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T17:57:27","slug":"chris-kelly-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/02\/12\/chris-kelly-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Kelly: 37-Year-Old to lead Canadian Hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 3rd<\/sup>, 2017, the National Hockey League announced that the league’s schedule would not allow for an Olympic break and all NHL players would be unavailable to represent their respective countries. The matter was officially closed and left the National Canadian Men\u2019s ice hockey team relying heavily on ex-NHL players currently playing in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), Europe or for the American Hockey League (AHL).<\/p>\n

Fast forward to January 10th<\/sup> 2018 when Canada\u2019s Olympic Hockey team, for the games held in South Korea, is announced. A few ex-NHL veterans stand out:\u00a0Gilbert Brule<\/a><\/strong>, Mason Raymond<\/a><\/strong>, Derek Roy<\/a><\/strong>, Wojtek Wolski<\/a><\/strong>, goaltender Ben Scrivens<\/a><\/strong> and Toronto-native Chris Kelly<\/a><\/strong>. On February 8th<\/sup>, Hockey Canada announced that Kelly would lead his country for gold as the men\u2019s ice hockey team captain. It\u2019s been a long road for Kelly, whose last season in the NHL was 2016-17. He is not under an NHL contract this season, thus making him available to play in the Olympic games.<\/p>\n

Chris Kelly: Captain Canada<\/h1>\n

Kelly\u2019s career playing professional hockey has been far from standard. This will be his first Olympic games at the spry age of 37 years.\u00a0In 13 NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins<\/a> and Ottawa Senators<\/a>, Kelly played in 833 regular season games. He registered 123 goals and 166 assists for 289 points, adding another 12 goals and 32 points in 120 playoff games. Chris Kelly was a vital teammate for the Senators team when they went to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals and won a ring in 2011 with the Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n

One may say that it should come as no surprise that Kelly was named as captain of the Canadian Olympic team. Only a few months ago he\u00a0participated in the 2017 Spengler Cup in Switzerland as a member of Team Canada, also bringing home a gold medal from what is believed to be the longest running international ice hockey tournament<\/a>. Hockey Canada clearly believes that Kelly\u2019s experience, being a veteran in various leagues and recent tournaments are integral to his strong leadership skills. This year’s Olympic roster has been selected from six different leagues across Europe and North America, and now gains some leadership with Chris Kelly.<\/p>\n

Kelly’s Career<\/h2>\n

Kelly\u2019s journey to bringing home gold for Canada can be ascended from his hockey career. After Kelly\u2019s last season with the Ottawa Senators, he became an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, 2017. According to Bruce Garrioch<\/a>, Ottawa showed no interest in re-signing the centre However, Kelly\u2019s story would not end there as Kelly finally signed a professional tryout contract with the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> on September 10th<\/sup>, 2017. Unfortunately, on November 3rd<\/sup>,\u00a02017 it was announced that Kelly did not make the team. It was reported that\u00a0Kelly talked his future over with his family and decided to keep training until the end of the November. Kelly stated to the Canadian Press as seen on TSN.ca<\/a> \u201cIf nothing kind of presented itself then maybe it was time to stop playing and look at other avenues after hockey.”<\/p>\n

Although times seemed bleak for the Canadian all-star, Neil Davidson stated in The Canadian Press, \u201cChris Kelly didn\u2019t know what to expect this season. Certainly not a trip to the Olympics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Opportunity Knocks<\/h3>\n

Kelly\u2019s fate turned when the Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion<\/strong>\u00a0gave Kelly a call and offered him a professional tryout (PTO) with Ottawa\u2019s AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. Kelly signed his original PTO with Belleville on November 24th<\/sup>, 2017 and he was back in the Senators organization. It was then that\u00a0he came into contact with Canadian Olympic team general manager Sean Burke<\/a><\/strong> and head coach Willie Desjardins<\/strong> who coached three seasons (2014-17) for the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On December 20th<\/sup>, Kelly was released from the Belleville Senators and participated in the 2017 Spengler Cup during the Christmas holidays. During the tournament in Switzerland, Kelly had an assist in four games and won a gold medal with Team Canada. Kelly returned home and signed his second PTO on January\u00a09th<\/sup>, 2018 with the Belleville Senators. He went on to play 16 games total with the Senators AHL affiliate.\u00a0Kelly registered two assists and 10 penalty minutes.<\/p>\n

As previously stated Kelly was named to the Canadian national ice hockey team on the 10th<\/sup>\u00a0of January and 15 days later Kelly was released from his PTO in Belleville allowing him to join the rest of his Olympic teammates in Latvia.<\/p>\n

Team Canada is participating in a series of exhibition games in Latvia in preparation for the Olympics in South Korea.\u00a0On February 3rd, Kelly was in Latvia with the majority of the Canadian National Hockey team, but nine players were still missing as coaching staff finalized team details for\u00a0Pyeongchang. The Canadian team beat both Latvia and Belarus 2-0, before beating Sweden yesterday.<\/p>\n

After leading Team Canada to victories in Latvia, Kelly stated on February 6th<\/sup>, 2018 in regards to his captaincy announcement, \u201cI never thought this would happen. I\u2019ve just taken it day by day and when an opportunity has presented itself, it\u2019s been great to be able to jump on it.\u201d As the saying goes, it gets better with age, the 37-year-old father of three was announced Captain of the 2018 Olympic men\u2019s ice hockey team.<\/p>\n

After the Olympics<\/h2>\n

Currently, Kelly doesn\u2019t have any professional hockey contracts on the table. Kelly has stated that he does not plan to return to the NHL. Therefore, the 2018 Winter Olympics could be the last high-level hockey he experiences. So why not go out with a bang? With a veteran captain leading our Nation, Kelly may just be able to finish his career a with an Olympic medal around your neck as the Canadian National anthem plays.<\/p>\n

The Olympics will take place February 9-25.<\/p>\n

The hockey tournament starts February 14th.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s first game is February 15th against Switzerland at 7:10 am EST.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>