Boston Bruins Acquire Ray Bourque's Eldest Son, Chris Bourque

Zach Hamill will not be sticking around to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his selection by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the NHL draft.

Instead, nostalgic New England hockey fans can welcome back a local boy who got to know the environs on Causeway Street before any of his prospective new teammates did.

The Bruins announced Saturday evening that Chris Bourque, the elder son of Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque, has been swapped out of the Washington Capitals organization in exchange for Hamill.

The younger Bourque, who was chosen by the Caps one round after Alexander Ovechkin in 2004, had made a name for himself primarily with the AHL’s Hershey Bears over his seven-year professional career.

He has won three Calder Cup championships with Washington’s top farm team and garnered the Jack Butterfield Trophy as AHL Playoff MVP in 2010.

There is only a negligible difference in NHL experience between Bourque and Hamill. The former has played a cumulative 33 games with the Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins while Hamill has slogged out 20 appearances for the Spoked Bs.

But with Hershey, where he has had three stints separated by a brief twirl with Pittsburgh and a 2010-11 season spent overseas, Bourque has put up more impressive numbers than Hamill ever did with Providence.

In four-plus professional seasons, Hamill has logged 255 AHL games played along with 44 goals and 95 assists. His career-high campaign was a 14-30-44 transcript in 2009-10.

With Hershey, Bourque has accumulated 131 goals and 262 assists in 392 games played. With the exception of his rookie year in 2005-06, he has never scored fewer than 21 goals in a season.

Bourque’s career-high campaign in the minors was 2011-12, when he led the league with 66 assists and 93 points.

No telling how soon or how well he will translate that to the top level.

But given how offensively challenged the Providence Bruins have been over three consecutive non-playoff seasons, Bourque ought to lend a tangible impact on the farm with just as much impact on the club as his sentimental value to the fanbase.