Justin Kelly (ice hockey)

Justin Kelly (born March 17, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.

Justin Kelly
Born (1981-03-17) March 17, 1981 (age 43)
Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
Height 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Weight 185 lb (84 kg; 13 st 3 lb)
Position Right Wing
Shot Right
Played for Lowell Lock Monsters
Springfield Falcons
EHC Black Wings Linz
Krefeld Pinguine
DEG Metro Stars
NHL Draft Undrafted
Playing career 2002–2019

Career edit

Kelly was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Kelly spent five seasons in the WHL, including three and a half with the Saskatoon Blades. In 2001-02, he tallied 86 points (39 goals, 47 assists) in 72 games for the Blades, which ranked him tenth in the league.[1]

The 2002-03 season saw him skate for Swedish side IF Troja/Ljungby.

Upon his return from Europe, Kelly spent three years playing on five teams in three leagues, AHL, UHL and ECHL, before bringing his game back to Europe: In the course of the 2006-07 season, Kelly featured for three clubs: Eishockey-Club Olten of Switzerland, EHC Linz of Austria and Val Pusteria of Italy.[2]

Kelly embarked on a three-year stint with German second-division club Bietigheim Steelers in 2008 and would make 129 DEL2 appearances in three seasons, amassing a total of 167 points (64 goals, 103 assists).[3] In 2009-10, he received Player of the Year honors.[4][5] That attracted the attention of German top-tier side Krefeld Pinguine, who signed Kelly for the 2010-11 Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) season. He moved to fellow DEL club DEG Metro Stars for the following campaign,[6] which was hampered by a knee injury sustained in October 2011.[7]

The 2012-13 season saw him return to IF Troja/Ljungby of Sweden,[8] where he had signed his first overseas contract ten years earlier. Kelly then signed a deal with the Ravensburg Towerstars for the 2013-14 campaign, which turned out to be a very successful one: He scored 32 goals on the season to go along with 58 assists for a shared top spot in the DEL2 scoring ranks.

Kelly then returned to the Bietigheim Steelers for the 2014-15 season[9] and in June 2015, had his contract renewed for 2015-16.[10] In the 2015-16 season, he led the DEL2 in scoring with 85 points[11] and for the second time was named DEL2 Player of the Year.[12]

Career statistics edit

    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1997–98 Prince Albert Raiders WHL 22 4 8 12 2
1997–98 Spokane Chiefs WHL 13 0 0 0 0
1998–99 Saskatoon Blades WHL 20 3 5 8 6
1998–99 Prince Albert Raiders WHL 30 3 4 7 13
1999–00 Saskatoon Blades WHL 54 6 11 17 36 11 0 1 1 9
2000–01 Saskatoon Blades WHL 60 16 40 56 38
2001–02 Saskatoon Blades WHL 72 39 47 86 47 7 4 2 6 4
2002–03 IF Troja-Ljungby Allsvenskan 23 11 13 24 14 10 4 5 9 14
2003–04 Las Vegas Wranglers ECHL 31 12 11 23 20 2 1 0 1 0
2003–04 Lowell Lock Monsters AHL 34 4 5 9 10
2004–05 Adirondack Frostbite UHL 57 23 42 65 29 6 2 4 6 2
2004–05 Springfield Falcons AHL 4 2 1 3 0
2005–06 Johnstown Chiefs ECHL 59 31 40 71 45 5 2 2 4 2
2005–06 Springfield Falcons AHL 5 0 0 0 4
2006–07 EHC Olten NLB 10 4 6 10 6
2006–07 EHC Linz EBEL 11 6 9 15 10
2006–07 HC Pustertal Wölfe Italy 22 12 19 31 20 8 5 10 15 10
2007–08 Bietigheim Steelers DEL2 32 14 18 32 18 5 0 2 2 6
2008–09 Bietigheim Steelers DEL2 48 26 37 63 40 12 8 8 16 4
2009–10 Bietigheim Steelers DEL2 49 24 48 72 54 12 6 10 16 14
2010–11 Krefeld Pinguine DEL 52 11 18 29 16 8 1 3 4 2
2011–12 DEG Metro Stars DEL 14 0 2 2 4 7 1 1 2 18
2012–13 IF Troja-Ljungby Allsvenskan 46 21 19 40 36
2013–14 Bietigheim Steelers DEL2 54 32 58 90 46 7 3 3 6 8
2014–15 Bietigheim Steelers DEL2 15 13 11 24 6 14 6 12 18 8
2015–16 Bietigheim Steelers DEL2 52 34 51 85 53 11 4 15 19 4
AHL totals 43 6 6 12 14
DEL totals 66 11 20 31 20 15 2 4 6 20

Awards and honours edit

Award Year
WHL
East Second All-Star Team 2002

References edit

  1. ^ "WHL Network". www.whl.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-02-22. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  2. ^ GmbH, Thomas Röstel, Matthias Geissler - Sports Trade. "Statistiken - Spielpläne - Archiv der DEL2". www.del-2.org. Retrieved 2016-02-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "RODI-DB - Die deutsche Eishockey-Datenbank". www.rodi-db.de. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  4. ^ Scheer, Mareike. "Justin Kelly bei DEG: Nach 37 Tagen ausgeflittert". NRZ. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  5. ^ EISHOCKEY.INFO. "Krefeld Pinguine: Pinguine holen Bundesliga-Topscorer Kelly - Weitere Spieler aus Liga 2 und dem eigenen Nachwuchs". EISHOCKEY INFO. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  6. ^ DEG Metro Stars 2011/2012 Roster Archived 2012-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Zwangspause für Eishockey-Stürmer Justin Kelly". BILD.de. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  8. ^ "Justin Kelly comes back to Troja!" (in Swedish). IF Troja/Ljungby. 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2012-08-01.
  9. ^ peter. "Justin Kelly - ein Publikumsliebling kehrt zurück ins Ellental". www.esbg.de. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  10. ^ GmbH, Südwest Presse Online-Dienste. "Auch Justin Kelly bleibt bei den Steelers". swp.de (in German). Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  11. ^ del-2.org. "DEL2 Topscorer". www.del-2.org (in German). Retrieved 2016-03-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ GmbH, Thomas Röstel, Matthias Geissler - Sports Trade. "Justin Kelly bester DEL2-Profi der Saison | del-2.org". del-2.org. Retrieved 2016-03-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links edit