Here's why Detroit Red Wings will retire Red Kelly's jersey this week

The Detroit Red Wings will raise another number to the rafters of Little Caesars Arena on Friday. Hall of Fame defenseman Red Kelly’s No. 4 will be retired before the 7:30 p.m. game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kelly spent parts of 13 seasons with the Wings and finished his career with just over seven years in Toronto.

Free Press sports writer Ryan Ford takes a look at Kelly’s career:

He didn’t win the Calder Trophy

Kelly entered the NHL in 1947 at age 20 after two full seasons as a teenager in juniors and had a big impact on the Red Wings right away. The Wings went from 22-27-11 in 1946-47 to 30-18-12 in ’47-48 while making the Stanley Cup final. Kelly finished his rookie season with 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in 60 games, good for a tie for fourth among defensemen. (Fellow 20-year-old Jimmy Thomson led all defensemen that year with 29 points, all assists, in 59 games.) He finished just third, with 16.3 percent, in voting for the Calder Trophy, given annually to the NHL’s top rookie. Ahead of him were Jim McFadden, a fellow Red Wing who had 24 goals and 24 assists as a 27-year-old, and Pete Babando who had 34 points at age 22 for the Bruins. (Babando would become part of Wings lore just two seasons later by scoring in overtime of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals to give Detroit the Cup in 1950.)

Eight is enough

Babando’s Cup-winning goal ushered in a golden decade for the Wings and for Kelly. Kelly was named to the year-end All-Star squad, making the second team. (The Wings filled five of the 12 spots on the first and second teams.) It was the first of eight All-Star nods for Kelly as a Wing. Six of the next seven were first-team nods; Kelly was shunted to the second team in 1955-56 behind Doug Harvey, the Norris Trophy winner, and Bill Gadsby, who led defensemen in scoring with 51 points in 70 games, one more than Kelly’s 50. Of course, Kelly led all defensemen in goals, with 16, nearly double Gadsby’s nine. (Harvey and Gadsby also finished ahead of Kelly in the Norris voting that season, though Kelly finished ahead of both in the voting for the Hart Trophy, given to the NHL MVP.) Kelly returned to the first squad for the final time in 1956-57 when he led all defensemen in goals, with 10.

For he’s a jolly good sport

Kelly added to his trophy case in 1950-51 when he won the Lady Byng Trophy, given to the player demonstrating a mix of high sportsmanship and playing ability. (Kelly had finished second in Byng voting the previous season.) Kelly won the Byng again in 1952-53 and 1953-54 and had a second-place finish in 1951-52 and a third-place finish in 1954-55. He won the award one more time, in 1960-61, after being dealt to Toronto and moving to center. Kelly is one of just four players to win the Byng at least four times. The others? Frank Boucher (7), Wayne Gretzky (5) and Pavel Datsyuk (4).

Norris goes solo

Kelly won the inaugural Norris Trophy, given annually to the NHL’s top defenseman, after the 1953-54 season. Had the trophy been given earlier, Kelly likely would have won it, too; he was the only defenseman in the top three in MVP voting in 1950-51 and 1952-53 and led all defensemen in scoring in 1951-52, with 12 more points than the No. 2 finisher. But instead, the trophy began just as Harvey began to dominate the league; Harvey won seven of the next eight Norris trophies after Kelly’s win. Harvey’s teammate, Tom Johnson, won it in 1958-59, with Gadsby finishing second, Harvey fourth and Kelly not receiving any votes as he struggled with a foot injury. Kelly and Gadsby’s paths would cross again the next season.

He didn’t want to leave Detroit

Even with just six teams, the NHL had quite a bit of star-filled trades in the 1950s. Few went as badly, though, as the Red Wings’ attempt to deal Kelly. The relationship between Kelly and Wings general manager Jack Adams had deteriorated in the previous year as Kelly struggled with a broken foot and Adams reportedly pressured him to play through the injury. (Kelly appeared in 67 of the Wings’ 70 games that season.) Just 24 hours after the story of Kelly’s foot and Adams’ pressuring broke in February 1960, Adams dealt Kelly, along with young forward Billy McNeill, to the Rangers for star defenseman Bill Gadsby and young forward Eddie Shack. As deals go, it was fairly balanced, though as the Free Press noted at the time, no defenseman in NHL history had more points than Kelly’s 483. (Gadsby had 421 in virtually the same number of games.)

But the 32-year-old Kelly refused to go to the Rangers, citing the ties he’d developed in Detroit over 13 seasons, and retired. As Kelly told the Free Press after announcing his decision: “I know it means starting all over. But I have lots of friends in Detroit and I can go to work tomorrow if I want to on my job with Sam Graham (Re-Nu Tool Co.).” McNeill also announced his retirement at age 24, and the deal was off. For a week. Adams started over and worked out a lesser deal with the Maple Leafs, nabbing 26-year-old defenseman Marc Reaume straight up for Kelly. It was not a good move for the Wings. Reaume played just 47 games for the Wings before getting dealt to an AHL team. Kelly, meanwhile, played 470 games for Toronto, with two top-10 MVP finishes and four more Stanley Cup wins.

Odds and ends

We’re not saying Red Kelly is the most interesting man in hockey, but here are three tidbits that won’t leave you blue:

Kelly played in juniors on the St. Michael’s College Majors squad in the OHL. The team produced several NHL players other than Kelly. The most famous one, though, is probably a name most Detroiters see every day: Tim Horton. The future doughnut magnate started with St. Michael’s the same season Kelly joined the Wings. They finally played together during Kelly’s time in Toronto.

Immediately after retiring, Kelly was hired to coach the expansion Los Angeles Kings for the 1967-68 season. He went 55-75-20 in two seasons. Kelly also coached the Penguins for four seasons and the Maple Leafs for four seasons.

Kelly served two terms in Canada’s House of Commons — their version of the House of Representatives — while playing for the Leafs from 1962-65.