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Height:
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5' 11" |
Weight:
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180 |
Shoots:
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L |
Position:
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D/C |
HHOF:
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1969 | ||||||
Leonard Kelly, better known as "Red" because of his fiery red hair, broke into the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings at the age of 20 in the 1947-48 season. Born in 1927 in Simcoe Ontario, Red played his early hockey with the famed St. Micheals Majors. Red was not immediately noticed at St. Mikes, and was initially cut from the "A" Team, then the "B" team and finally the midgets, and was forced to play in the schoolyard with the rest of the students. Kelly fought back hard and was finally noticed by the midget team and was put on the third line. He was then picked up by the "A" team and because of his strong skating ability he was moved to defense. When Red graduated from St. Mikes, Squib Walker the chief scout for St. Mikes said that Red would never make it for more than 20 games in the NHL and bet his $20.00 hat. Obvious Mr. Walker had to buy another hat, because Red lasted not only the 20 games, but lasted 20 years. His first 12 and a half years were spent with the Detroit Red Wings where he played with some of the great players of all time, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Terry Sawchuk to name a few. While with Detroit, Kelly played on 4 Stanley Cup Championship teams, and during the 1950-51 season he had 17 goals and 37 assists leading all defenseman for that season. One of the lesser known stories about Red was that he played part of the 1960 season with a broken bone in his foot. Not one to complain, Red continued to play, despite great pain. Red was traded to the New York Rangers that year along with Billy McNeill in return for Bill Gadsby and Eddie Shack. Kelly and McNeill did not want to go to the Rangers and both announced the would not report to the Rangers. At the time, Punch Imlach and the Toronto Maple Leafs were looking for a centre, and felt that Kelly could be their man. They traded Kelly for Marc Reaume. Kelly spent the next 7 and a half years with the Maple Leafs, centring such greats as Frank Mahovlich. Kelly and Mahovlich combined their talents as Frank set a then Toronto record for most goals in a season with 48 in 1960-61. Kelly was with Toronto for 4 more Stanley Cups, making him one of the very few people with that many Stanley Cups (8) who didn't play for the Montreal Canadiens. After his time with Toronto, Kelly was traded as a coach to the new Los Angeles Kings franchise where he took them to the playoffs for 2 straight years. Following that, Kelly spent 3 years with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and then 4 more years coaching the Leafs to 4 straight quarter final appearances. Throughout his career, Red won the Lady Byng Trophy a total of 4 times, and was the first to win the James Norris Trophy. He played in 13 All Star games, and was voted to the NHL First All Star Team 6 times and the NHL Second All Star Team 2 times. Kelly finished up his career with 281 goals and 542 assists in 1316 regular season games, and had 33 goals and 59 assists in 164 playoff games and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969. |
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