The late, great Terry Kath once sang that he wanted to be free. There aren't many Bruins who can identify with that, thanks to what Peter Chiarelli has cultivated in Boston.

What makes the job Chiarelli has done turning things around in Boston extra special is that he’s created an atmosphere so attractive to players that they routinely skip the possibility of free agency just to stay in Boston. Who needs July 1 when you can sign in June (or, in many cases, earlier)?

Two seasons ago, Chiarelli locked up Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron before they could even play a game of their contract year. This past season, Rich Peverley and Johnny Boychuk were among those to pass on unrestricted free agency. You can add two more to the list this week, as Chris Kelly and Gregory Campbell both signed in Boston.

“Getting to win a championship in Boston was something that I can’t describe. I know Peter and the management and the whole organization are willing to have that become a regular thing, and I think that was a huge reason why I wanted to come back,” Kelly, who knows Chiarelli from their Ottawa days, said Wednesday after agreeing in principal to a four-year, $12 million deal. “It’s such a great organization that wants to win. You only get so many opportunities to get a chance to win and, obviously, I wanted to get as many chances as I could, so Boston was the right decision for myself.”

The general manager said himself that Campbell, who took a three-year, $4.8 million deal to stick around, could have made more on the open market, given how thin free agency is at center this summer. 

“He took less than what he would have gotten on the market,” Chiarelli said of Campbell. “Let’s make no bones about that.”

As true as that may be, that isn’t the takeaway point of all of this. Forget that both players took less than they could have gotten on the open market; the situation in Boston is so desirable that they, like many others, don’t even want to hear other teams’ sales pitches. 

Take Campbell, for instance. He had 29 points on Boston's fourth line in 2010-11 and has some experience as a third-liner from his Florida days. He could have sniffed around for more playing time and more money, but he didn’t entertain the thought of taking off his Merlot-colored fourth-line practice jersey.

“There are a lot of considerations when you’re in this situation,” Campbell said. “It’s the first time that I was kind of scheduled for unrestricted free agency, and so there’s a lot of things that go through your mind, but I’m fortunate to play with really good players and we have a group of guys that are all very talented in each respect in what they do and what they bring to the game. 

“Our fourth line, as it’s called in Boston, is not a fourth line on most other teams, so that has nothing to do with it. Like I said, I’m very fortunate to play with good players. And to me, being a role player, as I am probably considered in the league, it’s important to be a role player on a good team because I’ve experienced before being a role player with a team that’s not so successful. You kind of get lost in the mix, and your role isn’t appreciated and winning isn’t very realistic. When you win and you have the opportunity to win and you play with good players, that makes you a better player. In Boston, you have all those aspects and so that makes me a better player.”

Of course, the Bruins’ ability to keep their guys and prevent them from hitting free agency doesn’t always come at a bargain like it did with Kelly and Campbell. Chiarelli has never been afraid to overpay for a player he’s liked, but what has seemed like overpaying at the time has worked out in the Bruins’ favor before. 

Three years with an annual cap hit of $2.25 million appeared to be a bit rich for a frequently injured defenseman, but Andrew Ference’s deal has been a steal for the Bruins, especially in their Cup-winning season when he stabilized the second pairing in the playoffs with Johnny Boychuk struggling. 

Speaking of Boychuk, at this point his deal looks pretty steep, as he’ll have a $3.36 million cap hit over the next three seasons. It would take a lot from the 28-year-old blueliner for that deal to be a bargain, but the point is that if Chiarelli likes one of his players, he’ll pay them.

That isn’t a criticism of Chiarelli -- he has an owner that lets him spend to the cap limit each season and he does so by taking care of his guys -- but it does make Kelly at $3 million a year an even bigger score.  

It also says something about Kelly. For as popular a guy as he is with teammates (he got an ‘A’ in his first full season on a veteran Bruins team) and the media, he’s always said he doesn’t like attention. Maybe he couldn’t stomach the thought of all the attention that would come with being a sought-after free agent. 

More likely, he probably couldn’t stomach the thought of being anywhere else. If he could -- a return to Ottawa seemed like a perfect fit -- he would have hit the open market to see what teams had to offer before ultimately making a decision. He didn’t do that, instead choosing to join the long list of current Bruins (Chara, Bergeron, Rich Peverley, Shawn Thornton and Boychuk, among others) to skip testing the waters before inking new pacts with Boston. 

“It speaks volumes as to his intentions,” Chiarelli said of Kelly. “It’s a good spot here. It’s a good sports town, and these guys saw it firsthand. They saw the way the fans embraced the team, and the fans can be tough. These guys are athletes that want to win.”

Often times, players itch to get to free agency and get paid elsewhere. Other times, they simply want to see what's out there before making a decision, but that's getting rarer and rare around these parts.