Chris Bourque

Bourque tore up the AHL during the 2011-12 season, to the tune of a league-leading 93 points in 73 games. The son of Bruins’ legend Ray Bourque, he’s a natural fit for the Boston organization. However, despite his prolific production in the minors, if the smallish forward sticks with the big club it would likely be in a depth role on the team’s fourth line.

Bourque was brought back by the Caps who originally drafted him in the second round of the 2004 draft after a stint in Europe last season. He scored 34 points in 47 games in the KHL and Swiss League. The son of NHL great Ray Bourque, Chris has yet to find his place in the NHL. He played 20 games in 2009-10 with Pittsburgh, tallying three points and has only appeared in 13 games for Washington in three years with the club. At 25, his window of playing in the NHL consistently is closing.

Bourque played in eight games for the Capitals last season and scored his first NHL goal during that stint. He signed a one-year deal, but his NHL future is uncertain. He is still considered one of the team's top prospects and best overall skaters, but lacks size. He may see a lot more action this year with the lack of centers.

Bourque is still a ways away from getting a serious look at the NHL. He did make an emergency appearance last season for the Caps, but that only lasted four games. He is only 5-foot-8 , but is solidly built, has a low center of gravity, is already one of the finest skaters in the Washington organization and also is a terrific puck handler, has dynamic vision and can find the open man using clean, crisp passes. He showed off those skills last year, his second year at the AHL level, by scoring 25 goals and 33 assists in 76 games. He should continue playing in the AHL this season, but is a great prospect with a good shot at playing in the NHL soon.

The son of hall of famer Ray Bourque, Chris has long been put down for his lack of size (he's listed at 5-foot-8, 181 pounds). The feisty center managed, however, to put up 58 points in 76 games for AHL Hershey last season, though with Michael Nylander and Nicklas Backstrom manning the pivot on the Caps' top two lines for the foreseeable future, Bourque won't get meaningful minutes in the NHL for at least the next couple of seasons.

Bourque was a catalyst for the AHL champion Hershey Bears during the regular season in 2005-06, tallying 36 points in 52 games. Still, there's a feeling that he's too small at this point to work effectively in the NHL, so Bourque should spend another season in Hershey developing.

Bourque, a 2004 draft pick and son of the legendary Ray Bourque, got his first taste of professional hockey by scoring two points in six games with AHL Portland in 2004-05 after tallying 23 in 35 games with Boston University. His performance in the AHL in 2005-06 will go a long way toward proving whether the 5-foot-7, 170-pound center is big enough to survive in the NHL.