The Oilers will be bringing in some more depth down the middle for their upcoming training camp as center Chris Kelly has accepted a tryout offer from the team, GM Peter Chiarelli told Sportsnet’s John Shannon (Twitter link).
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Chiarelli is no stranger to what Kelly can bring to the table as Kelly played for both of his former organizations while the GM was there in Ottawa and Boston.
After spending parts of the previous six seasons with the Bruins, Kelly returned to play for the Senators last season. He played in all 82 regular season games with the team, recording five goals and seven assists while averaging just shy of 12 minutes per game. However, he struggled considerably at the faceoff dot, winning just 44.5% of his draws, nearly 5% below his career average.
The 36-year-old has played in 883 career regular season games in his career split between the Senators and Bruins, scoring 123 goals while adding 166 assists.
While Edmonton is loaded with center depth, Kelly could potentially land a spot on their fourth line in a penalty killing role. He has averaged at least 1:45 of shorthanded TOI per game in every year of his career and logged 2:05 per night in that situation with Ottawa last season.