March 2020 – Prior to last season, Summers signed a deal with the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL, an affiliate of the New Jersey Devils. He has shown moderate improvement with the Thunder and received his first taste of AHL action as he was loaned to the Binghamton Devils for nine games this season. He doesn’t serve as much more than organizational depth at this point, showing little in terms of NHL upside but his steady development could lead to a steady role in the AHL in years to come and possible a sniff of NHL action as an injury replacement in the next couple of seasons but even that would require a fairly stable role to be established in the AHL which he has been unable to do to this point. He should be well off your fantasy radar until further notice. Tony Ferrari
August 2018 – After his four years of college were complete, Summers did not come to an agreement with the Sens and becomes an unrestricted free agent. He had solid numbers in his senior year with Clarkson (30 points, plus-19, 40 games) and should land a pro contract at other levels. A long shot despite still being relatively young at 22. Dobber
April 2018 – After producing 10 points in his freshman year, Summers showed improvement on the offensive side of the puck in each of the three subsequent years culminating in a big senior year for Clarkson University. 2017-18 saw Summers finish fourth on the team in scoring with 30 points, most among team blueliners and second-most conference-wide, and led the team in helpers with 24. He was especially effective on the powerplay with 17 of his 30 points coming with the man advantage. He wasn’t strictly offensively inclined though as he also led his squad with 55 blocked shots. In short, Summers was a beast for the powerhouse Golden Knights helping to guide them to the NCAA tournament and getting named to the ECAC First-All Star team. Summers is all out of college eligibility yet he remains unsigned at this point in time. I’d wager there’s one coming his way though given the progression he’s shown in the four years since being drafted and the dearth of right-handed shot defensemen in the system. Brad Phillips
June 2017 – Summers had his most productive season at Clarkson University as a Junior with three goals and 14 assists, the second-highest scoring defenseman for the Golden Knights. He was especially productive on the powerplay with 10 of his points coming on the man advantage, the second-highest mark on the team. Summers will no doubt be leaned on heavily in his Senior season with the graduation of their top D James De Haas so the odds are very good he’ll surpass the 17 points from 2016-17. Drafted in the seventh round three years ago, Summers was always viewed as a long-term, low-risk project so expect him to stay another year in college with at least a couple of years in Belleville. Brad Phillips
June 2015 – The Senators traded into the 7th round to get Kelly Summers obviously with some sort of reasoning and this year it started to show as Summers posted six goals along with four assists in 33 games for Clarkson University. Summers more impressively only took four penalty minutes. A bit of a mixed bag in terms of what Summers brings to the ice, Kelly has been described as both a defensive and offensive-minded d-man which can be seen by his numbers – in his draft season Summers posted over a point per game. Summers was named to the all-rookie team in the NCAA this year as well and recently his D partner, Kevin Tansey, announced that he’ll be attending the Ottawa Senators development camp. Benjamin Gallant
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