He was also a Liberal Member of Parliament for the Toronto-area riding of York West from 1962 to 1965, during which time he also won the Stanley Cup—twice—while actively playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He was also one of the only two players (the other is Terry Sawchuk) to have never played for the Canadiens and to be part of two of the nine dynasties[broken anchor] recognized by the National Hockey League (NHL) in its history.

[1][4] He grew up listening to Foster Hewitt's broadcasts of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and was particularly inspired by the style of their hard-charging defenceman, Red Horner.

However, while playing junior hockey for the St. Michael's Majors, he was encouraged to refine his style by his coach, former Leaf great Joe Primeau.

When Red Wings GM Jack Adams got wind of the story, he was furious, and immediately brokered a four-player deal in which Kelly was sent to the New York Rangers.

The switch proved to be a success, as, already a great playmaker, Kelly turned Frank Mahovlich into one of the most lethal goal scorers in NHL history.

[9] After the Penguins ended the 1969–70 season with its first-ever playoff appearance and advanced to the semifinals, Kelly signed a five-year, $250,000 contract on May 21, 1970, to continue as coach, and also replaced Jack Riley as general manager.

[10][11] With the team struggling in sixth place in the NHL West Division during a stretch of winning only two of 22 contests and having failed to qualify for the postseason in 1970–71, Kelly was pressured to relinquish his general manager title back to Riley on January 29, 1972, in order to concentrate on his coaching duties.

[12] Amid a slump in which the Penguins won only two games with three draws and seven losses and slid into fifth place in the eight-team NHL West Division, Kelly was fired and replaced by Ken Schinkel on January 13, 1973.

A bizarre aspect of his tenure as Maple Leafs coach occurred during the 1975–76 quarterfinal series when he promoted pyramid power amongst his players to counter the Philadelphia Flyers' use of Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless America."

The players embraced the superstition after observing team captain Darryl Sittler first place his hockey sticks beneath the pyramid and then stand under it for exactly four minutes.

[18][19] He was easily re-elected in the following year's election, beating his Progressive Conservative opponent, future NHL agent Alan Eagleson by an almost 13,000 vote margin.