Kelly comfortably made the jump to a talented Raiders roster as a rookie this past season, becoming a key mainstay on the blueline en-route to the Raiders making it to the WHL Final against Everett.
Despite falling just short of winning the league title, there’s a lot of buzz for Kelly and his teammates moving forward.
“It was a really strong year for our team,” he said. “I feel like we turned some heads a little bit, having a lot of having a lot of new guys come in and a lot of young guys. It was hard to lose like that in the finals, obviously, but you can’t keep your head down for too long. It’s always going to be in the back of your mind, but just kind of taking that feeling from that loss and bring it into next year to push our group even further.
“(Looking ahead) I feel like I could play a little bit nastier, have that side of my game where people don’t want to come down my side and they know that in the defensive zone they’re going to have a challenge with me.”
Ranked No. 107 by NHL Central Scouting on its final list of North American skaters, Kelly now eagerly awaits for the draft to see what’s to come in hopes of further following in his dad’s footsteps.
“It’s pretty cool to be recognized, it’s just a dream come true having the chance to be able to get drafted,” he said. From being a young kid all the way to where I am now, it’s still my biggest dream (to play in the NHL), but it’s just cool to be recognized. I know that this is just the beginning and there’s a whole lot more work that has to go into to be able to play in that league.”