The NHL Amateur Draft was instituted in 1963 in order to break the existing NHL teams' monopoly on junior players, gained by the NHL Sponsorship System. Prior to the draft players were claimed by NHL teams based on the junior teams they played for. If an NHL team sponsored a junior team and a player was on that team, their rights belonged to the NHL team and the player could not play for any NHL team except the sponsor.

However, the first few years of the NHL draft were still affected by the sponsorship system since sponsored players were not eligible to be drafted. It was not until the 1969 draft that all remnant effects of the sponsorship system were eliminated.

• 1963. All non-sponsored players 17 and older are eligible.
• 1965. The eligibility age is raised to 18 years old.
• 1967. The eligibility age is raised to 20 years old.
• 1974. NHL teams may select one 18 year old in either of the first two rounds. This was done to combat competition by the WHA's lower draft age.
• 1975. Draft age raised to 20 years old.
• 1979. Draft age lowered to 19 years old. Draft name changed from Amateur draft to Entry Draft.
• 1980. Draft age lowered to 18 years old.
• 1995. 18 and 19 year old players required to "opt in" to the draft. This prevents many NCAA players from being drafted since opting in would cause them to lose their NCAA eligibility

• When the rules for the NHL draft were drawn up, the Montreal Canadiens were given two priority picks which could be exercised before any other teams had selected players. These picks were known as Cultural Picks, were in lieu of their regular pick, and could be used to select any French-Canadian players.

  The Canadiens used one of these picks in 1968, and since they had obtained the picks of the two worst teams, Detroit and Oakland, this gave them an unprecedented top three picks in the draft!

  The following year the Canadiens exercised both of their Cultural picks, used on two French-Canadians (Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif) who were considered to be the top prospects in the draft. This rule was quickly voted out after the 1969 draft.

• In the 1974 NHL draft, the Buffalo Sabres general manager, using pick #183, selected Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Katanas. Everyone thought that the Sabres had uncovered a new talent from across the ocean.

  However, it turned out that Tsujimoto was a waiter in a Japanese restaurant that the owner had visited the night before. And "Katana" was the Japanese word for a saber! They had succeeded on playing a joke on everyone!