Are Rene And Ray Bourque Related? Wife Jana Flatt and Dad Gary

There is no relation between Rene Bourque and Ray Bourque. Both hockey players share a common surname but are not related.

Considering all the parallels between these two individuals’ characteristics, it is only natural for these rumors to spread. 

Rene and Ray Bourque are both Canadians who have played ice hockey professionally. Both players have previous experience playing for the Colorado Avalanche, which is the same team. 

Ray Bourque was a member of the Colorado Avalanche in the year 2000, although Rene just joined the organization in 2016.
A further resemblance between these two sportsmen is that they have the same surname. 

However, that is the only thing they have in common. Rene and Ray are not connected, although they both share the same last name and professional history.

Rene Bourque is married to Jana Flatt. They dated for years before getting hitched in 2014 and are ready to start a family.

2014 marked the beginning of the couple’s life together as husband and wife, and they haven’t looked back. They plan on having children soon as he values family, just like his career.

Rene Bourque is the son of Gary and Barbara Bourque, born on December 10, 1981.

The first part of Rene’s childhood was spent in Edmonton. His mother worked as a social worker in Lac La Biche, while his father worked in the Canadian oil industry near Fort McMurray. His father was born and raised in Canada.

Bourque has a twin sister

Chantal and Bourque are fraternal twins, and Chantal’s older sisters, Kim and Nadia, are also fraternal twins. Bourque has three sisters in all. He is of Métis ancestry, and his first cousin Wayne Bourque is a native boxer who has won three consecutive North American championships.

The children of the Bourque family were brought up by their mother

When Bourque was seven years old, his family relocated back to Lac La Biche.

While Bourque’s father was occasionally gone from the house for weeks at a time owing to the demands of his profession, Bourque’s mother took care of the children while simultaneously pursuing her certificate in social work and, eventually, worked full-time for the provincial government of Alberta.

He spent his childhood in a neighborhood home to a sizable Metis population.

His parents strongly urged him to pursue a career in hockey

His parents inspired him to play hockey, and after participating in a season of minor hockey in Fort McMurray, he went on to become an honors student at the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, which is located south of Regina in Saskatchewan.

He was offered a position to play major junior hockey with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League (WHL). Still, he turned down the offer since doing so would have prevented him from playing for a school that is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Bourque considered his education to be of the utmost importance. It wasn’t until he had obtained a full scholarship to play hockey at the University of Wisconsin–Madison that he thought he might make a career out of hockey.

He received his Business and Consumer Behaviour education from the University of Wisconsin.

Bourque has been active in various philanthropic endeavors in Calgary and at Lac La Biche.

He claims that this way of life made his childhood difficult, so he established the Bourque Buddies charity: to ensure that Metis children always have something to strive for and look forward to in their lives.

In addition to serving as a spokesperson for Native Americans in sports at youth symposiums, he established the Rene Bourque Hockey Fund, intending to donate hockey equipment to children who do not have access to such resources.

Because of his fund, fifty sets of sporting goods were given to disadvantaged youngsters in Northern Alberta during the 2008–2009 season, and more than one hundred sets were given during the 2010–2011 season.

In the same school year, 2010–2011, he also initiated a program that he termed “Bourque’s Buddies.” Through this initiative, he gives tickets to Flames games to Tsuu T’ina Nation students who have significantly contributed to their respective schools.

After the conclusion of the 2009–10 season, Bourque was given the opportunity to represent Canada in the 2010 IIHF World Championship and make his debut on the international stage.

He played for the seventh-place Canadians in seven games, contributing one goal and one assist.

During the 2017–18 season, Bourque was chosen to represent Canada in the Winter Olympics, which were held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018. He was utilized in an attacking capacity and produced three goals and 4 points in a total of 6 games for Canada, which helped them win the Bronze medal.

In his first game with the Blackhawks, which was a 5–3 defeat to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Bourque scored his first goal in the National Hockey League (NHL) against goalkeeper Jean-Sébastien Giguère. Bourque joined the Blackhawks at the beginning of the 2005–2006 season.

At the end of his first year with the squad, he scored 16 goals and 34 points, which was good for fourth place in the scoring race. Following that, the Hawks extended Bourque’s contract by two years and gave him a new one.

In the 2006–2007 season, he was sidelined by injuries for much of the year, playing in only 44 games and scoring seven goals. During a fight in the crease on November 12, 2006, he was involved in a scrum with the Columbus Blue Jackets and received a severe cut to the neck from Nikolai Zherdev’s skate. He was taken to the hospital immediately after the game and treated there.

After undergoing surgery to heal the injury, the Blackhawks stated that he would be out of action for three to six weeks. Bourque regarded himself fortunate that the injury was not worse, and upon his return to activity four weeks later, he stated that he might not have lived if the cut had been a few millimeters more profound than it was.

A little more than two weeks after his comeback, on December 31, 2006, Bourque sustained a shattered bone in his ankle, which forced him to miss time on the sidelines once again. After an absence of about two months, he got back to work on February 21, 2007, after returning from his absence.

During the 2007–08 season, Bourque was once again hindered by injuries. He had a groin strain early in the season, which forced him to miss time, and then he broke his thumb in a game against the Detroit Red Wings in November, which forced him to miss a month of action for the team.

After making his comeback, he did not suffer any health problems and finished the season with ten goals and 14 assists for Chicago in 62 games.