Avalanche’s Parker Kelly Swapped Taylor Swift For Noah Kahan At Coors Field

Parker Kelly may be one of the Colorado Avalanche’s biggest music fans, but on Saturday night, he was just another fan in the crowd.

Kelly and his wife, Kiarra, were among the roughly 50,000 people who packed Coors Field for the opening night of Noah Kahan’s sold-out two-night stand in Denver.

For Kelly, it was a pretty fitting way to spend a Saturday night during the offseason.

The Avalanche forward has become a bit of a music personality around Colorado thanks to his postgame performances of Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” which has become something of a tradition after Avalanche victories. On Saturday, though, Kelly wasn’t the one leading the singalong. He was there with everyone else as Kahan took the stage.

And considering the season Kelly just had, he probably had plenty to celebrate.

Kelly is coming off the best year of his professional career, playing all 82 regular-season games and setting career highs across the board. He scored 21 goals, added 14 assists and finished with 35 points, establishing himself as a much bigger part of Colorado’s lineup than he had been in previous seasons.

Now, Kelly is entering the first year of the four-year, $6.8 million contract he signed with the Avalanche, a deal that carries a $1.7 million annual cap hit through the 2029-30 season.

If Kelly can follow up his breakout campaign with another year like it — or take another step forward — that contract could end up looking like one of the more underrated deals in the NHL.

But before the next season gets underway, Kelly still has a little more offseason to enjoy.

Maybe that explains why he found himself at Coors Field on Saturday night.

Or maybe, after spending parts of the summer away from Denver, Kelly was feeling a little “Homesick.”

Either way, he wasn't the only Avalanche player beginning to make his way back to Denver.

Jaden Schwartz and Brent Burns have already been skating at Family Sports Center, while Scott Wedgewood has been training in Michigan. Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon have also been putting in their offseason work back in Canada.

The voluntary skates will become more frequent as the summer rolls along and training camp gets closer, meaning more and more Avalanche players will soon be back in town. 

For the Avalanche’s resident Taylor Swift singer, it was probably a pretty good way to spend one of his last weekends before hockey starts taking over again.