The year the Blueshirts had the first overall pick

The New York Rangers have had the first pick in the NHL Entry Draft just once in their 93 year history.  How did that turn out?

After a story recently about the New York Rangers rebuild, a reader wrote that he had never seen the team get a first overall pick.  Considering where the Rangers are in the standings, unless there is a miracle at the lottery, it won’t happen this year.   They did get the first overall pick once but it didn’t turn out so well.

In 1965 it was called the NHL Amateur Draft and the rules were very, very different. For the first time, players had to be 18 years old to be eligible, instead of 16.  After the NHL teams made their picks, the AHL, WHL and CHL were allowed to select any remaining players.

Because of the change in age eligibility, the best of the young players had already been selected in prior years or were already sponsored.  Already gone were future NHLers like Ken Dryden, Pete Mahovlich, Tim Ecclestone, Walt McKechnie, Garry Monahan, Gerry Meehan and Syl Apps.

In fact, the 1965 draft was considered so poor that only ten players were selected by NHL teams, compared to 24 the year before. It was so bad, the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t pick anyone. Of course, this would be the year that the Rangers had the first overall pick.

Andre Veilleux?

The draft was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal and the Rangers picked Andre Veilleux of the Montreal Rangers of the Ligue de Hockey Junior AA (LHJAA).   The Rangers had finished fifth in the six team league, just ahead of the Boston Bruins, but in those days they rotated the picks and it figures that this was the year the Rangers went first.

There’s very little known about Andre Veilleux except that he never played professional hockey.  After his drafting he played for the Trois-Rivieres Reds in the Quebec Junior Amateur Hockey League (QJAHL) scoring three goals and 13 points. There’s no word on how many games he played in the team’s 48 game season.

Players in that league who made it to the NHL included winger Serge Bernier and goalie Phil Myre.  One of his teammates was future Ranger draft pick Andre “Moose” Dupont.   Dupont was a defenseman who played seven games with the Rangers and ended up winning two Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers.

According to hockeydraftcentral.com, Veilleux actually did get a tryout with Kitchener of the OHA and continued his career with Rosemont and Verdun of the Quebec Midget Leagues.  Here is his page from hockeydb.com.

The 1965 draft

Only two of the 11 players selected in the draft made it to the NHL.  The notable was defenseman Pierre Bouchard who was the fifth pick by Montreal.  He went on to play 12 seasons in the NHL with Montreal and Washington.

The Rangers were the only team to make three selections.  In the second round they drafted goalie George Surmay who played three seasons in he minor leagues.  They selected center Michael Parizeau 10th overall in the third round, the last NHL pick.  Parizeau actually played 58 games in the NHL for the Blues and Flyers before jumping to the WHA where he played seven seasons.  For you trivia buffs, he was a teammate of Wayne Gretzky with the Indianapolis Racers in 1978-79.