Inside the No. 1 Pick Club: Hockey's Most Exclusive Fraternity

TORONTO — It is a 53-year-old club, with 54 members. It only admits one new person per year. Its members are overwhelmingly of Canadian heritage, but there are a few Americans in there, with some Russians, Czechs and one Swede too. 

Its most senior active member is a 37-year-old man who, paradoxically, looks a little older than that thanks to a graying, Moses-style beard but who still puts up better numbers than almost everyone younger. Joe Thornton is the elder statesman of hockey's most exclusive society—the No. 1 Pick Club—and while the San Jose Sharks center says there is no secret handshake among its members, there is an unspoken bond.

"You know who are the No. 1 picks," Thornton said recently, playing for Team Canada in the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto. "Last night, in the back of the bus, I looked around, and Johnny Tavares [No. 1 in 2009] was back there, Sid [Sidney Crosby, 2005], Steven Stamkos [2008], myself. We know who each other are; let's put it that way."

The NHL will celebrate its 100th season in 2016-17, but its entry draft dates back only to 1963. On June 5 of that year, at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel, 16-year-old Garry Monahan, a center, became the first overall pick in the first NHL draft, then called the NHL amateur draft, by the hometown Canadiens.

The rules for drafting players were much different then. Most top prospects already belonged contractually to one of the six NHL teams because those teams owned their own junior clubs and could sign players when they were still in their mid-teens.

In the 1963 draft, therefore, there were few players considered to be actual top prospects. In all, just 21 players were selected by the six teams, with the draft itself not open to the public or media. It wasn't until days later that Monahan's name made its way into the Montreal newspapers as the Canadiens' top pick, and Monahan went on to play only 14 games in his Habs career.

"I was the head eastern scout from 1961-64 for Montreal," said the NHL's all-time wins leader as a coach, Scotty Bowman, "and if you really wanted a kid, you tried to get them or their parents to commit to playing with one of your sponsored junior teams, and then you owned his amateur rights from that point on and pretty much on into their NHL careers."

By 1970, when expansion was in full swing with the NHL, the best prospects could be selected, and that year's first pick, Gilbert Perreault, went on to a Hall of Fame career with Buffalo. Guy Lafleur went first to Montreal the next year, and with a few exceptions most No. 1 picks have had strong careers. 

At the World Cup, nine of the past 11 No. 1 picks were on hand, including this year's, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In June, the native of Scottsdale, Arizona, walked up on a stage in Buffalo's First Niagara Center to shake the hand of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as cameras flashed and television cameras rolled. Quite the difference from 1963, when Monahan, according to the Hockey News, wasn't even aware he'd been drafted when it happened.

At 18 years his senior, Thornton said Matthews will better appreciate as the years go by what an honor it was to be selected first in hockey's highest league.

"I kind of expected I might go No. 1, but when you actually hear your name called and it's official, you still kind of can't believe it happened," Thornton said. "Time just stops for a second, and it doesn't feel real. You know your life has just changed in a big way. [Matthews] probably expected it too, but I'm sure he'd tell you how special it was for him in ways he didn't quite imagine."   

True, Matthews said.

Jeffrey T. Barnes/Getty Images

"I remember mostly just seeing the happiness on my parents' faces. That was probably a huge thing I'll always remember," Matthews said. "It's a huge honor. You look at some of the other names on the list of guys who went first overall, and you can't believe your name is there now too. But other than that, I haven't looked too much into that. My career is just starting."

Stamkos said he watched every draft as a kid and dreamed of hearing Bettman call his name first one day. 

"I remember how great it felt putting on an NHL jersey for that first time," Stamkos said. "Being such a big hockey fan away from the rink, I always knew which guys got drafted where. It's a sense of pride. It's a pretty amazing thing to be able to say you had an opportunity to get drafted first overall. It's a rare, exclusive list. It's pretty special. I wouldn't say guys go around having secret club meetings about it, but guys are aware of who they are, for sure. I'm sure when my career is over and I look back, I'll feel even more special about it."

Obviously, some No. 1 picks pan out better than others. What about the ones whose careers haven't been full of All-Star Games or Stanley Cups? Would they rearrange history by dropping down a few notches in the draft if they could, based on the enhanced pressure and criticism they might have faced?

"I know I wouldn't," said Colorado's Erik Johnson, who was taken first overall by St. Louis in 2006, two spots ahead of Jonathan Toews with Chicago. "It was a great honor then, and it still is now."

Patrick Kane, who went first overall to Chicago in 2007 and is one of seven Americans in the club, said being a No. 1 pick is "something they can never take away from you."

"When you see all the No. 1 picks of the last 10-12 years, all of them are impact players in the NHL," Kane said. "It's amazing to see these young kids come in now and how good they are right off the bat. But when you do see guys who have been there as a No. 1 pick, you do kind of compare your draft-day experiences sometimes. There is an unspoken bond."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the top pick of the 2011 draft by Edmonton, can hardly believe it's been five years since his name was called first by Bettman.

"That's getting a little crazy for me to think about, how long ago that was," Nugent-Hopkins said. "It was a big honor. You look at the other names there, and they're some of the best players in history. It adds some pressure, but I think probably most guys who get to that level welcome the pressure."

Connor McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins' teammate with the Oilers and one of three No. 1 picks still on their roster, was the no-brainer choice in 2015. The hype surrounding his entry to the league was probably the NHL's biggest since Crosby went first to Pittsburgh in 2005.

"Even if you expected it, it's still a great honor when it happens. I know I felt that way," McDavid said. 

Watching as several other former No. 1 picks milled about the Air Canada Centre on a World Cup media day, Thornton chuckled at the realization he is still active among them. As someone who has been getting into books on Charles Darwin of late, however, and about natural selection, Thornton can better appreciate, perhaps, how he and they all got here.

"Everybody here worked hard, but everybody here had a lot of other things go their way that they were just fortunate to have go their way," Thornton said. "In the end, we're all just lucky to have had it happen."

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.