By Jeff D'Andrea

‘Pesky’ Parker powers into NHL draft rankings

Apr 12, 2017 | 5:30 PM

Before Tuesday’s announcement, ‘Pesky’ Parker Kelly was passed over in every draft list by NHL Central Scouting.

But thanks to an outstanding second half, Kelly was able to sneak his way onto the final rankings, coming in at 192 among North American skaters.

“Obviously, not seeing my name up there [in previous rankings], I used it as motivation,” Kelly said. “There are a lot of good hockey players out there, it’s nice to be on there.”

“It was nice to see, to finally get recognized and to see my hard work is paying off,” Kelly added. “But it’s just a number, there’s a lot of hard work ahead of me.”

The underdog story is nothing new to Parker Kelly. It was a battle for him to make the Raiders in the first place, but he did so at 16 years old despite being an undersized seventh round pick in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft.

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Of Kelly’s 21 goals he scored in the 2016-17 season, a whopping 17 of them came in the second half. That includes a two-goal, two-assist night on March 4 against the Kootenay Ice, followed up by another two-goal effort on March 7 against the Swift Current Broncos.

One of the prettiest came against on March 14 on the road against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

Wheel, snipe, Kelly boys. Parker Kelly puts the Raiders up 2-1. Kelly has points on both Raider goals, and 7 goals in as many March games pic.twitter.com/fzheJi2ep9

— Jeff D’Andrea (@Jeff_paNOW) March 15, 2017

Kelly credits being more comfortable in a top-six role for his massive upgrade in goal production, as well as playing with other offensive options team’s leading scorer Simon Stransky, newly-acquired Curtis Miske, and overagers in Cavin Leth and captain Tim Vanstone.

“I think I just had a little more belief in myself, a little more confidence and I was playing with better players like Miske, Leth, even Timmy at times, Stransky too,” said Kelly, who played the entire 72-game schedule for the Raiders. “Guys like that, they’re better to play with and they can find you the puck.

“I think I finally found what kind of style I need to play, a straight-line guy that goes to the net. That’s where a lot of my goals came from. I’m just going to keep doing that in the future.”

Kelly entered the year with an ‘A’ on his jersey. He admitted it may have been daunting task at the beginning of the season, especially being a sophomore, but filled into the role.

“Towards the end of the year, I had a little more respect in the room. It was definitely an adjustment at the start of the year, a 17-year-old wearing an assistant captain’s ‘A,’” Kelly said. “It’s not the easiest thing, I think I put a little pressure on myself to be a little better and do little more on and off the ice.

“I think towards the end of the season there, I was more comfortable with it and felt more responsibility with it. Hopefully that will be there next year and hopefully I can lead this team to a championship in the next couple of years.”

Kelly was one of three Raiders listed in the final rankings. Ian Scott, who’s currently with Team Canada at the 2017 IIHF Under-18 World Championships in Slovakia, was ranked third among North American goaltenders. Defenceman Zack Hayes was ranked 202^nd overall in the North American skaters list.

Jeff D’Andrea is paNOW’s sports reporter. He can be reached at jdandrea@jpbg.ca or tweet him @jeff_paNOW.