Kelly, "Red" (Leonard P.)
Hockey
b. July 9, 1927, Simcoe, ONT
Beginning in 1947, Kelly spent twelve and a half seasons with the Detroit Red Wings as a great rushing defenseman who was among the top ten scorers in the NHL three times. He won the first Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman in 1954 and he won the Lady Byng Trophy, symbolic of combining skillful play with gentlemanly conduct, four times, in 1951, 1953, 1954, and 1961. Detroit won four Stanley Cup championships during his tenure.
Then Punch Imlach, general manager and coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, decided he needed a center who could play defense, primarily to stop Jean Beliveau of the Montreal Canadiens. Kelly refused to report to the New York Rangers after a trade in the middle of the 1959-60 season, so Imlach acquired him, gave him the money he wanted, and moved him to center.
Kelly not only did the defensive job Imlach wanted, he became a fine play-maker. The moody young Frank Mahovlich increased his goal scoring from 18 to 48 in his first full season playing on Kelly's line, and Toronto won four Stanley Cups in Kelly's seven and a half seasons with them.
After the 1966-67 season, Kelly retired as a player to become coach of the expansion Los Angeles Kings, and he guided them to a surprising second-place finish in the Western Division. Two years later, he was fired by the Kings and hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins finished second in 1969-70 and Kelly won the Adams Trophy as the league's coach of the year.
He was fired again in the middle of the 1972-73 season and seven months later he returned to Toronto as head coach. After four seasons there, he retired.
In his 20 seasons as a player, Kelly was in 1316 games and scored 281 goals, with 542 assists. He had 33 goals and 59 assists in 164 playoff games. He was in the playoffs 19 times, an NHL record he shares with Gordie Howe. As a coach, he had 278 victories, 330 defeats, and 134 ties.