1963 NHL Amateur Draft

The 1963 NHL Amateur Draft was held on June 5 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was the first NHL Amateur Draft and consisted of 16-year-old players.

The draft was instituted by NHL President Clarence Campbell in attempt to produce what he called "a uniform opportunity for each team to acquire a star player." Prior to the creation of the draft NHL teams would sponsor amateur teams and players, pre-empting other NHL clubs from acquiring new, young talent, and limiting amateur players' prospects in the NHL to the team which sponsored them.

Eligibility in this draft was limited to all amateur players who would reach 17 years of age between August 1, 1963 and July 31, 1964. Under the league rules, teams were not allowed to talk to the drafted players about turning professional until they turned 18. At that point, the teams had 72 hours to get the players signed or placed on their negotiation list. Players already on sponsorship lists were ineligible.

The draft order was determined by giving the teams choice of their place in the six-team order based on a reverse order of the standings, i.e., as the Boston Bruins finished last in the 1962–63 season they were given first choice of pick in the order. The final draft order was chosen to be Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks and Toronto Maple Leafs. The order would rotate in the next draft such that each team moved up one spot in the order, and the first pick Canadiens would move to sixth.

This first draft consisted of four rounds. 21 players were chosen, out of a possible 24 picks: teams were permitted to exercise the right to defer their pick to the next team in the draft order. The Red Wings chose not to exercise their third and fourth round picks, and the Black Hawks elected not to exercise their fourth round pick.

Of the players selected five eventually played in the NHL, and only one won the Stanley Cup (Peter Mahovlich). None of the players selected have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

elections by Round

Below are listed the selections in the 1963 NHL Amateur Draft.

Round 3

Round 4

ee also

*1963-64 NHL season
*List of NHL players

References

*cite book | author = Diamond, Dan | coauthors = Duplacey, James; Dinger, Ralph; Kuperman, Igor; Zweig, Eric | title = Total Hockey | publisher = Total Sports Publishing| date = 1998| location = New York| pages = pp. 285-286 | isbn = 0-8362-7114-9
* [http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1963/63facts.html Facts about the 1963 draft on hockeydraftcentral.com]
* [http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1963a.html hockeydb.com]

NHL Drafts
preceded=Sponsorship of amateur teams
succeeded=1964 NHL Amateur Draft