Ray Bourque holds records for most career goals, assists, and points by a defenceman in the National Hockey League .
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29 Facts About Ray Bourque
2.
Ray Bourque won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's best defenceman five times, while finishing second for that trophy a further six times.
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3.
Ray Bourque twice finished second in the voting for the Hart Memorial Trophy, a rarity for a defenceman.
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4.
Ray Bourque was named to the end-of-season All-Star teams 19 times, 13 on the first-team and six on the second-team.
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5.
Ray Bourque was 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.
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6.
Ray Bourque finished his career with the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he won his only Stanley Cup in his final NHL game.
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7.
Ray Bourque's mother died from cancer when he was 12 years old, while his father died in 2009.
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8.
Ray Bourque was raised bilingual, speaking both English and French at home, though he went to a French school.
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9.
Ray Bourque was the third-round pick of the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League .
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10.
Ray 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.
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11.
Ray Bourque's 65 points that season was a record at the time for a rookie defenseman.
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12.
Ray Bourque proved a solid force for Boston for 21 seasons, 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.
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13.
Ray 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.
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14.
Ray Bourque was popular among Bruins fans because of his willingness to re-sign with Boston without any acrimonious or lengthy negotiations.
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15.
Ray Bourque passed over several opportunities to set the benchmark salary for defenceman; instead, he usually quietly and quickly agreed to terms with the Bruins, and this stance irritated the National Hockey League Players' Association, which had been pushing to drive up players' wages.
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16.
Ray Bourque led all Colorado defencemen in scoring and formed a solid defensive pairing with Adam Foote and Rob Blake, the latter of whom the Avs received from the Los Angeles Kings in a trade.
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17.
Ray Bourque was named to the post-season First All-Star team, finishing as runner-up to the Detroit Red Wings' Nicklas Lidstrom for the Norris Trophy.
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18.
Avalanche advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, where Ray Bourque scored the game-winning goal in Game 3 against the New Jersey Devils.
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19.
Ray Bourque retired shortly thereafter, having set defensive regular-season records in goals and assists for 1579 points.
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20.
Ray Bourque played for the NHL All-Stars in Rendez-vous '87 against the Soviet Union, and played for the Canadian team in the 1998 Winter Olympics, leading all defencemen in scoring with one goal and two assists in six games.
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21.
When he was initially called up to the Bruins, Ray Bourque was assigned the number 7, which had been worn by former Bruins star forward Phil Esposito from the time he was acquired by the team in 1967 until he departed in 1976 via trade.
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22.
Ray Bourque was the third player to be issued the number following Esposito's departure, following Sean Shanahan and Bill Bennett.
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23.
Ray Bourque came up with his own way to honor the veteran Bruin and did so at the ceremony.
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24.
Ray Bourque was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, his first season of eligibility.
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25.
Ray Bourque is the co-owner of an Italian restaurant called Tresca in Boston's North End.
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26.
Ray Bourque founded the Ray Bourque Family Foundation in the summer of 2017.
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27.
Ray Bourque's younger brother Richard was a hockey player and was drafted by the Bruins in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft in the tenth round, but never played professional hockey.
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28.
Ray Bourque's younger son, Ryan, was a third-round draft choice of the New York Rangers in 2009, and was a member of the USA's 2010 gold-medal World Junior Championship team, earning three assists during the tournament.
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29.
Ray Bourque won the Norris Trophy as the top defenceman in the league five times, fourth all-time after Bobby Orr, Doug Harvey and Nicklas Lidstrom.
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