1963 NHL Amateur Draft Information & 1963 NHL Amateur Draft Links at HealthHaven.com

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.

[edit] Selections by round

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

= NHL All-Star ^[1]

= Hall of Famers

[edit] Round one

Pick #	Player	Position	Nationality	NHL team	College/junior/club team
1	Garry Monahan	Centre	Canada	Montreal Canadiens	St. Michael's Buzzers tier 2
2	Peter Mahovlich	Right wing	Canada	Detroit Red Wings	St. Michael's Buzzers tier 2
3	Orest Romashyma	Left wing	West Germany	Boston Bruins	New Hamburg (OHA Jr. C)
4	Al Osbourne	Right wing	Canada	New York Rangers	Weston (OHA Jr. B)
5	Art Hampson	Defence	Canada	Chicago Black Hawks	Trenton (Ont. Midgets)
6	Walt McKechnie	Centre	Canada	Toronto Maple Leafs	London (OHA Jr. B)
^{Reference: "1966 NHL Amateur Draft hockeydraftcentral.com". http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1966/66main.htm. Retrieved 11 January 2009.}

[edit] Round two

Pick #	Player	Position	Nationality	NHL team	College/junior/club team
7	Rodney Presswood	Defence	Canada	Montreal Canadiens	(Ont. Midgets)
8	Bill Cosburn		Canada	Detroit Red Wings	Toronto Bick's (Ont. Midgets)
9	Terrance Lane	Centre	Canada	Boston Bruins	Georgetown (Ont. Midgets)
10	Terry Jones	Centre	Canada	New York Rangers	Weston (Ont. Midgets)
11	Wayne Davison	Defence	Canada	Chicago Black Hawks	Georgetown (Ont. Midgets)
12	Neil Clairmont	Left wing	Canada	Toronto Maple Leafs	Parry Sound (Ont. Midgets)
^{Reference: "1966 NHL Amateur Draft hockeydraftcentral.com". http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1966/66main.htm. Retrieved 11 January 2009.}

[edit] Round three

Pick #	Player	Position	Nationality	NHL team	College/junior/club team
13	Roy Pugh	Centre	Canada	Montreal Canadiens	Aurora (OHA Jr.C)
14	Roger Bamburak	Right wing	Canada	Boston Bruins	Isaac Brock (Manitoba)
15	Mike Cummings	Forward	Canada	New York Rangers	Georgetown (Ont. Midgets)
16	Bill Carson		Canada	Chicago Black Hawks	Brampton (Ont. Midgets)
17	Jim McKenny	Defence	Canada	Toronto Maple Leafs	Toronto Neil McNeil Maroons (PHA Metro Jr. A)
^{Reference: "1966 NHL Amateur Draft hockeydraftcentral.com". http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1966/66main.htm. Retrieved 11 January 2009.}

[edit] Round four

Pick #	Player	Position	Nationality	NHL team	College/junior/club team
18	Glen Shirton	Defence	Canada	Montreal Canadiens	Port Colborne (Ont. Midgets)
19	Jim Blair	Forward	Canada	Boston Bruins	Georgetown (Ont. Midgets)
20	Campbell "Cam" Allison	Defence	Canada	New York Rangers	Portage la Prairie (Man. Jr. A)
21	Gerry Meehan	Centre	Canada	Toronto Maple Leafs	Toronto Neil McNeil Maroons (OHA Jr. A)
^{Reference: "1966 NHL Amateur Draft hockeydraftcentral.com". http://www.hockeydraftcentral.com/1966/66main.htm. Retrieved 11 January 2009.}