Chris Kelly enjoyed his two seasons as the Bruins’ player development coordinator, but moving over to the coaching staff was a no-brainer as far as he was concerned.
Kelly, who played parts of six seasons in Boston after being acquired at the 2011 trade deadline, was announced as the Bruins’ new assistant coach on Friday, taking the spot vacated by Jay Pandolfo earlier this summer.
On a Zoom call with reporters on Monday, Kelly said he is looking forward to being more involved with the team on a day-to-day basis, something he cited as a key reason he wanted to make the switch.
“You’re kind of in the fight with the players in terms of being there day-in, day-out,” Kelly said of being an assistant coach. “You can see the small differences, potentially helping younger players grow their game. With development, yeah there’s that growth, but you’re not with them day-in, day-out. They’re with their club team in college or in junior. You’re seeing them periodically, so you don’t see the growth, I found, as much. Whereas when you’re there every day, you can really help the players and really break it down a little bit more.”
It’s a move Kelly has made before. His first job after his playing career was as the player development coach for the Ottawa Senators during the 2018-19 season, but he actually ended up on the bench as an assistant coach later in the season after the Senators made a coaching change that saw them replace Guy Boucher with Marc Crawford.
“I did that for the last 20 games of the season, and I really enjoyed it -- being around the players, helping them,” Kelly said. “It felt like you’re a little bit in the fight with them every day. You can see their progress.
“Going to Boston, I loved being a Bruin as a player. You see an organization that has success and is run so well. So when the opportunity presented itself to come back to Boston, obviously I was able to jump on it and do development. Like I said, I do enjoy, or did enjoy, doing development, being down in Providence, and doing a little bit of both sides of the game -- the management side and the coaching side. Luckily this job presented itself and I was able to get hired.”
One unique aspect of this for Kelly is that he’ll now be coaching a few guys he played with. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand are the most notable given how long they were teammates and how close they became as friends, not to mention the lengthy history Kelly and Marchand have when it comes to chirping each other.
Kelly was also around for David Pastrnak’s first two seasons, and obviously David Krejci and/or Tuukka Rask would join that group as well if either returns at some point.
Kelly said he thinks having those relationships already in place will only help and that both sides can benefit from it.
“I think there’s obviously that respect factor that we played together and were fortunate enough to win together, and we’ve continued to stay friends over the last 10 years,” Kelly said. “Going into a coaching role with these guys still as players, I’m learning from them just as much as I hope I’m trying to teach them some things.
“They’re obviously elite, elite players in the league. Any way I can help them, I’m there, as well as the rest of the group. I formed pretty good relationships with the younger players and the other players in that locker room, just being around the last two years. So I don’t see it being much of an issue. I’m just there to help the guys day-in and day-out.”