Played 725 NHL games with the Blackhawks, the Canadiens, the Ducks, the Blue Jackets, the Avalanche, and, most notably, the Calgary Flames.
Signed as a free agent by Chicago in 2004, Rene Bourque made his NHL debut in the 2005-06 season, as part of one of the deepest rookie crops in NHL history. He put up impressive numbers on a bad Chicago team, scoring 16 goals and 18 assists for 34 points, good for fourth on the offensively second-last Blackhawks. However, the next year, Bourque missed 38 games and only scored 17 points in 44 games, and missed 20 games the next year, only putting up 24 points in 62 games. He quickly became a declining asset and was put on the trade block, and was traded to the Flames at the 2008 Draft for a second-rounder. Bourque quickly made an impact in Calgary with his goal scoring, as seen below.
Bourque flourished offensively in Calgary and scored 88 goals and 76 assists for 164 points in 249 games. He scored over 20 goals and 40 points in each of his three full seasons in Calgary, recording 27 goals in both 2009-10 and 2010-11. Bourque scored two goals in the 2011 Heritage Classic against the Montreal Canadiens, one of which was the game-winner. However, during a difficult 2012 season in which he struggled with offensive consistency and was suspended twice for reckless hits, Bourque was traded to Montreal with Patrick Holland and a second-rounder for Mike Cammalleri, Karri Ramo, and a fifth.
Bourque continued to struggle in his first half-season in Montreal, and he finished the year with 18 goals and 6 assists combined between the two teams. 18-6 would be a terrific record for a pitcher, but they were the lowest totals for Bourque since 2007 and, well, ever, respectively. He missed much of the next season, the 2012-13 lockout season, and only scored 7 goals and 6 assists in 27 games. He continued to struggle in the 2013-14 regular season, putting up his worst totals yet (9 goals and 7 assists in 63 games); however, he experienced a resurgence in the playoffs proving that he wasn't quite done in the NHL yet. En route to the Eastern Conference Finals, Bourque scored 8 goals in 17 playoff games, leading all Canadiens in goal scoring, and added 3 assists. In that ECF series, Bourque helped the Canadiens stave off elimination in Game 5 with an enormous hat trick, the second goal of which was the game-winner as the Canadiens won 7-4.
This proved to be Bourque's last hurrah in Montreal. He started off the 2014-15 season with seemingly no gas left in the tank, only recording two points (both assists) in his first 13 games of the season before being sent down to the AHL. Later that season, Bourque was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Bryan Allen. While he managed to play in 30 games with Anaheim, Bourque failed to produce with any consistency offensively, only recording 2 goals and 8 points before being traded for the second time in the season, this time to Columbus with a 2nd-rounder and William Karlsson in exchange for James Winsniewski and a 3rd. Bourque tripled his goal output on the season in eight games with the Blue Jackets in 2014-15, scoring four goals (and no assists) in eight games. He finished up this nightmarish season with 6 goals and 8 assists in 51 games, not exactly first-line numbers.
Entering the final year of a six-year, $19.8 million contract signed with Calgary in 2010, Bourque had to prove himself in 2015-16 with Columbus or risk having the 2016-17 season begin without him. And... he was bad, putting up 3 goals and 5 assists in 49 games while seeing his ice time drastically fall to an average of 10:27 per game. However, there was reason to believe that perhaps Bourque had fallen victim to bad luck, as his shooting percentage for the year was a laughably low 3.9%. That didn't stop Columbus from letting him go after the season.
After twisting in the wind for weeks on end into the summer, Bourque finally found another home on August 25, 2016. He signed a PTO with the Colorado Avalanche, and after a successful training camp, he snagged a one-way deal with the team on October 10 of that year. The Avalanche experienced the worst season in their history in 2016-17, finishing dead last in the NHL by far with 48 points; however, Bourque experienced a resurgence of sorts. He scored 8 goals in his first 19 games of the season, and finished off with 12 goals and 18 points in 65 games, respectable bottom-six numbers.
Now, Bourque is off to Sweden for the next chapter in his professional hockey career. At age 35, he's likely done in the NHL, but even still, he had a great run. Congrats to Rene on finding a new gig, and the best of luck in the future.