Coaching Career
After the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967, Kelly announced his retirement as a player, and negotiated with the expansion Los Angeles Kings to be their inaugural coach on the strength of Imlach's assertion that Toronto would not stand in the way of Kelly's coaching career. However, Imlach insisted that Los Angeles draft Kelly in the expansion draft, and after the Kings failed to do so, refused to release Kelly's rights until Los Angeles traded a minor-league defenceman to the Leafs.
Despite being the only rookie coach, and being in charge of the favorites to finish last, Kelly went on to guide the Kings to second place in the West Division and made the playoffs two years in a row.
In 1969–70, Kelly moved on to coach the Pittsburgh Penguins for three seasons, making the playoffs in his first and last seasons with the team. Kelly returned to the Maple Leafs as coach in 1973. He stayed in the position from 1973–74 to 1976–77. The team earned a playoff berth in all four seasons with Kelly as head coach but got eliminated in the quarterfinals each time. He was fired at the end of the 1977 season, ending 30 consecutive years at ice level in the NHL.
His final regular season coaching record was 261–311–128.
Read more about this topic: Red Kelly
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