Bruins fans don't like to look back at the results of the 2007 NHL Draft. It hurts the eyes, the brain, and the heart. With the eighth overall pick, the Boston Bruins selected the WHL's leading scorer, Everett Silvertips' forward Zach Hamill.

Taken ahead of Logan Couture, Ryan McDonagh, Max Pacioretty, and David Perron (And that's just in round one), the stats told the story on the Vancouver-born center. Not the biggest guy in the world, listed at 5-foot-10, Hamill's playmaking skills shown with an absurd 61 assists in 2006-07 gave fans a glimpse of a player that'd surely play a big role for the rebuilding Bruins in the post-Thornton era.

That's how they wrote it, anyways.

But five fruitless years of Hamill later, with four assists in just 20 games at the NHL level, it's finally over, as the 23-year-old was sent packing to Washington today in exchange for forward Chris Bourque.

Hamill, a pending restricted free agent, split time in Providence and Boston this year, tallying 21 points in 41 games for the P-Bruins (AHL) and two in 16 contests with Boston, was clearly on the way out in the Hub given the anticipated influx of young guns set to leave their junior clubs this upcoming season.

Sent to the Caps' organization for the 5-foot-8 Bourque, the son of Bruins legend Ray Bourque, the journeyman and pending unrestricted free agent arrives to Boston with one goal in mind. "Chris let us know that he wanted to play in the National Hockey League," Hershey GM/President Doug Yingst said of Bourque's situation. "He wasn’t interested in coming back to the organization. He wants one more shot at the NHL."

Leading the American Hockey League with 93 points in 73 games this past season, the long and winding road of the 26-year-old forward shifts to Boston in a two year stretch that's included stints in the KHL, Swiss league, and then back to the AHL.

Bourque last played in the NHL back on Feb. 11, 2010, his only NHL game of the season, and finished the night with a minus-2 rating in a 6-5 Caps loss. Overall, the lefty-shooting winger has a goal and three assists in 33 games at the NHL level.

While Bourque will never be his dad and it's senseless to even try to draw a comparison of any sort, the move makes sense from a Boston point of view as it gives the Black-and-Gold another winger that could compete for a spot on the Bruins' soon-to-be-ravaged bottom-six if they are to keep him in the fold. With fourth line forwards Gregory Campbell and Danny Paille set to become unrestricted free-agents on July 1 along with Chris Kelly and Brian Rolston, Bourque could simply be another body to compete for ice-time come September.

At best, he's a 13th skater, in all likelihood he's a top-line AHLer, and at worst, he's not here. Essentially, he's Hamill without the 8th overall tag.

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