Kelly joins fellow NHLer Patric Hornqvist of the Nashville Predators to play for Red Ice.
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View full sizeCenter Chris Kelly (23) is the 10th Boston Bruins player to head overseas due to the NHL lockout.With the NHL canceling games through November 30, some players aren't waiting around anymore to see if they'll be seeing game action in North America.
One of those players is Boston Bruins center Chris Kelly, who signed a deal with HC Red Ice of the First Amateur League of Switzerland on Wednesday.
Agent Pat Morris confirmed the deal to The Republican and said that Kelly will leave Wednesday night to join the team for its next game against EHC Basell on Nov. 2.
Finnish reporter Matias Strozyk first broke the news on Twitter and said that Kelly's contract can be renewed at the end of each month, which means he'll have an out clause if the NHL lockout ends.
No formal announcement of the deal has been made on the club's website.
Kelly joins fellow NHLer Patric Hornqvist of the Nashville Predators who signed with Red Ice on Oct. 2.
Kelly is the 10th Bruin to head overseas. The others are forwards Patrice Bergeron (Switzerland), David Krejci (Czech Republic), Rich Peverley (Finland) and Tyler Seguin (Switzerland); defenseman Zdeno Chara (Czech Republic), Dennis Seidenberg (Germany) and Andrew Ference (Czech Republic); and goalies Tuukka Rask (Czech Republic) and Anton Khudobin (Russia).
The Bruins third-line center signed a four-year, $12 million extension during the offseason after a year in Boston where he set career-highs in goals (20), points (39) and plus/minus rating (+33).
Kelly was the only player on the team to skate in all 82 regular-season games and has missed only two in the last four seasons.
BERGERON RETURNS: Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron returned to the ice with his overseas club HC Lugano on Tuesday after missing the last two games with an upper-body injury.
NESN reporter Naoko Funayama tweeted that Bergeron was listed as day to day for Lugano's game Saturday against HC Davos, a 6-5 loss.
Bergeron got back to business as he scored and also had two assists at right wing, but his team fell short, 4-3, to Geneve-Servette HC.
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