Ray Bourque

Both of his parents were originally from New Brunswick, and moved to Montreal in the 1950s.

Raymond Jean Bourque (born December 28, 1960) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.

He holds records for most career goals, assists, and points by a defenceman in the National Hockey League (NHL).

He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman five times, while finishing second for that trophy a further six times.

He also twice finished second in the voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy, a rarity for a defenceman.

He was named to the end-of-season All-Star teams 19 times, 13 on the first-team and six on the second-team.

Bourque was also an Olympian with Canada and became nearly synonymous with the Boston Bruins franchise, for which he played 21 seasons and became Boston's longest-serving captain.

Bourque finished his career with the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he won his only Stanley Cup championship in his final NHL game.

After a stellar junior career with Sorel and Verdun of the QMJHL, in which he was named the league's best defenceman in 1978 and 1979, Bourque was drafted eighth overall by the Bruins in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, with a first-round draft choice obtained from the Los Angeles Kings in a 1977 trade for goaltender Ron Grahame.

Boston GM Harry Sinden had intended to select defenceman Keith Brown, but Brown was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks immediately prior to Boston's selection.

Panicking, the Bruins settled on Bourque, allegedly against their better judgment.

Bourque made an immediate impact in Boston during his rookie season of 1979–80, scoring a goal in his first game while facing the Winnipeg Jets.

Bourque asserted himself from the start as one of the best defensemen in the league, winning both the Calder Memorial Trophy as Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-Star selection, the first time in NHL history a non-goaltender had ever achieved the distinction.

His 65 points that season was a record at the time for a rookie defenseman.

Bourque proved a solid force for Boston for 21 seasons (1979–2000), famous for combining offensive prowess at a level that few defencemen in league history had ever achieved—he was a perennial shot accuracy champion at All-Star Games—and near-unparalleled defensive excellence.

In 1985, upon the retirement of Bruins' captain Terry O'Reilly to coach the club, Bourque and veteran Rick Middleton were named co-captains of the team, Middleton to wear the "C" during home games and Bourque for road games.

Upon Middleton's retirement in 1988, Bourque became the team's sole captain, and retained the position for the remainder of his Bruins' tenure.

In so doing, he passed Dit Clapper as the longest-tenured Bruins' captain in history, as well as passing Alex Delvecchio of the Detroit Red Wings as the longest-serving team captain in NHL history, a mark since surpassed by Steve Yzerman of the Red Wings.

In the playoffs, Bourque led the team to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Edmonton Oilers in both 1988 and 1990, where the Bruins lost in both series.

Bourque won five Norris Trophies as the league's top defenceman and finished second to Mark Messier in 1990 in the closest race ever for the Hart Memorial Trophy, the league's Most Valuable Player award.

The Bruins' reliance on Bourque's on-ice mastery was so total that—while Bourque was very durable throughout much of his career—the team was seen by many to flounder whenever he was out of the lineup.

During Bourque's tenure with the Bruins, the team continued what would be a North American professional record twenty-nine consecutive seasons in the playoffs, a streak that lasted through the 1996 season.

In the 1996–97 season, Bourque missed the playoffs for the only time in his career, when the Bruins finished with the NHL's worst record that season.

Bourque was also popular among Bruins fans because of his willingness to re-sign with Boston without any acrimonious or lengthy negotiations.

He passed over several opportunities to set the benchmark salary for defencemen; instead, he usually quietly and quickly agreed to terms with the Bruins, and this stance irritated the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), which had been pushing to drive up players' wages.

The Bruins' record for most consecutive seasons in the playoffs by any team in North American professional sports was ended at 29 seasons in the 1996–97 season.

The next two seasons, the Bruins returned to the playoffs and in 1999, they won a playoff series for the first time since 1994.

Despite a nucleus of young talent and high expectations for 1999–2000, injuries caused the Bruins to plummet to the bottom of their division, and they went on track to miss the playoffs.

This was further exacerbated by negative attention over teammate Marty McSorley's hit on Donald Brashear.

With his career nearing an end and the team going in the wrong direction, Bourque requested a trade from the fading Bruins so he would have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.

Bourque and fellow veteran Dave Andreychuk were sent to Colorado in exchange for Brian Rolston, Martin Grenier, Samuel Påhlsson and a first-round draft pick (2000 draft, 27th overall, Martin Samuelsson).

Although Bourque played just one-and-a-half seasons with the Avalanche, he proved to be a force both on the ice and in the locker room.

In 2000, he helped the struggling Avalanche improve their form and capture their division.

During the playoffs, they advanced to the conference finals, where they lost to the Dallas Stars in a hard-fought series, with Bourque hitting the post in the last minutes of Game 7, which would have tied the game after his team rallied from a 3–0 deficit in the third period to 3–2.

His mother died from cancer when he was 12 years old, while his father died in 2009.

Bourque was raised bilingual, speaking both English and French at home, though he went to a French school.

Bourque was the third-round pick of the Trois-Rivières Draveurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL; now known as the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League).

Halfway through his rookie season, head coach and general manager (GM) Michel Bergeron traded Bourque to Sorel for high-scoring Benoît Gosselin.

In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players.

Bourque was born in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, the son of Raymond Bourque Sr. and Anita Allain.