Chris Kelly and Senators are not close on new deal

From Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen:

The chances of centre Chris Kelly re-signing with the Ottawa Senators appear to becoming slimmer as the opening of unrestricted free agency on July 1 approaches.

Despite negotiations between Pat Morris, Kelly's agent, and Senators general manager Bryan Murray since the end of the regular season, they are not close to reaching an agreement on a new contract.

"We've gone back and forth a bit, but I'm not overly optimistic we'll get a deal done before July 1," Morris said yesterday. "There are still lots of guys who are going back to their teams to talk (before July 1), but it's also the time of year when guys are curious to see what their value is among the other 29 teams."

Read the entire article here.

The Senators are certainly not blessed with a ton of cap room. Add that to the fact that Kelly has a lot more leverage because he has unrestricted free agency on his side, and the Senators may be hard-pressed to re-sign the speedy forward.

Kelly has been a very dependable two-way player for the team for the past couple of seasons and losing a player with his ability to play in all situations would be a bad start to the summer for the Senators organization.

Senators fans can only hope the two sides can come to an agreement prior to July 1. Because if Kelly hits the UFA market on Canada Day, all bets are off as to whether he would re-sign with the Sens.