Phil Bourque

Phillipe Richard Bourque (born June 8, 1962) is an American former professional ice hockey player. He was never selected in the NHL Entry Draft; instead, he was signed as a free agent by the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 4, 1982. He is a distant cousin to Hall of Fame defenseman Raymond Bourque.

Playing career

Bourque joined the Penguins organization after playing two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Kingston Canadians. He joined the Penguins' American Hockey League affiliate, the Baltimore Skipjacks for the 1982–83 season, and made his NHL debut with Pittsburgh in 1983–84, playing in five games.

Bourque would not become a mainstay on the Penguins roster until the 1988–89 season, during which he played in all 80 of the team's games. He would be a member of the Penguin teams which won the Stanley Cup in the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons. Mike "Doc" Emrick would recount later that Bourque, after winning the 1991-1992 Stanley Cup, had put his name inside the Cup with the many jewelers who had worked on the cup in the past. He had worked on the cup in his garage using a screwdriver to repair a loose screw at the top of the trophy. He would leave the Penguins after the 1992 Cup victory, and play sparingly with the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators. Just prior to the 1994–95 NHL lockout, Bourque was nearly killed when he took a 40-foot fall down a cliff near Arizona's Lake Powell. He suffered three broken vertebrae in his neck, a broken skull, a shattered sinus cavity, a broken cheekbone and a broken nose in the incident.