It's an honor that can mutate into a curse.

It's the number we're all conditioned to aspire to, that index finger wagging triumphantly in the air.

Straight to the top of the charts. At 18.

If you're a No. 1, there is no room for mere mediocrity or even fleeting glory. You are expected to be a star, a savior, a cornerstone. The pressure is intense, and immediate.

	Drafted in 1995, Bryan Berard is the last No. 1 pick to earnrookie-of-the-year honors.

When the Tampa Bay selected Vincent Lecavalier No. 1 three summers ago, the Lightning's owner, Art Williams (who, by the way, had never seen a hockey game at that time), now famously gushed:

"He'll be a Hall of Famer! The Michael Jordan of hockey!"

But not all the No. 1s can wind up on IMAX, like Mike. For every Mario Lemieux there is a Greg Joly, or every Guy Lafleur an Alexandre Daigle. Vincent Lecavalier can be a great one, as can the 2001 top pick, of Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk. Joe Thornton, now in his fifth NHL season, has finally reached the verge of stardom.

But it takes time.

Except people don't have a lot of that when dealing with big hype, big money and big expectations.

"Oh, I think there's more pressure than ever before on the kids taken No. 1 today," says 1975 No. 1 Mel Bridgman, now a player agent. "Why? Because of intensified media coverage. Because of the availability of information, and the Internet, everyone knows who these players are. Everyone has already rated them and has an opinion on them.

"Hockey has a far greater reach now than, say, when I was chosen No. 1." Former Phoenix general manager Bobby Smith took an opposite viewpoint on the same issue a year ago.

"I'd say (No. 1s) have it easier now," he argued. "Because with an 18-year-old draft, I think everyone is aware that the margin for error on making the pick is much greater. People are more willing to give them a break; to wait and see how they develop. With a 20-year-old draft, teams were supposed to get the best player."

Only four No. 1s in the 33 years teams have been picking are in the Hockey Hall of Fame -- Lafleur, Gilbert Perreault, Lemieux and Denis Potvin. Next month, Dale Hawerchuk will increase that number to five. Only six No. 1s have won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year -- Perreault, Potvin, Smith, Hawerchuk, Lemieux and Bryan Berard. As Bridgman points out, so much of the early success or failure of a top pick depends on the environment he is thrust into and the care taken to make sure he develops properly.

"You look at these guys and they look like men, but people tend to forget they're 18 years old, only young adults.

"I was very fortunate. I was selected by a veteran Philadelphia team. I was sheltered, in a way. Those players taught me how to be a pro, how to win, how to behave.

"In so many cases, the player is thrust into a difficult situation before he's ready."

Former Montreal Canadiens' general manager Rejean Houle was the first No. 1 taken, in 1969, by the Habs.

"On TV, they said I'd be the next Maurice Richard!" he once recalled, amazed.

In Buffalo a year later, they nicknamed Perreault "The Franchise." Well, Perreault did turn out to be a franchise player, but no one ever mistook Houle for the next Rocket. As Perreault once said: "It's not easy being No. 1. You live with it every day. They pay you to perform. You face the public all the time. Sure there's a lot of pressure but is a lot of pressure, isn't it?"

And therein lies the quandary of No. 1 selections. Selecting players is an inexact science. Although same No. 1 drafts are no-brainers -- i.e. Lemieux, Lafleur, Eric Lindros -- every once in a while Dame Fate throws a Daigle -- an consensus No. 1 his draft year -- in there just to shake a few cages and keep scouts nervous.

In '93, Daigle was chosen ahead of, among others, Chris Pronger, Paul Kariya, Rob Niedermayer and Adam Deadmarsh. A decade earlier, Brian Lawton went in front of Pat Lafontaine and Steve Yzerman, while in '75, Detroit chose to ignore Barry Beck, Doug Wilson and Mike Bossy in favour of Dale McCourt. Was any of this the fault of either Daigle or Lawton or McCourt?

"After all," said Bobby Smith, taken first by Minnesota in '78, "the team picked the player, the player didn't pick the team. Even though ultimately the burden is borne by the player.

"Just to use a name, Greg Joly didn't ask the Detroit Red Wings to select him first. It must be awfully hard for someone to go through life constantly hearing 'Oh, he was the No. 1 pick, but they should've taken so-and-so."

Perhaps there's no more obvious example of this than Doug Wickenheiser, the prolific Regina Pats' centerman taken first overall by the Canadiens in 1980. Montreal bypassed Denis Savard, a hugely talented French-Canadian, to choose Wickenheiser.

The franchise, and the player it selected, never lived it down.

Savard went on to be a star, Wickenheiser to an average career. When he died of cancer in 1999, Wickenheiser remained a bitter man over the stigma surrounding his career.

"I had great empathy for Wick," said a former teammate in St. Louis, Rob Ramage, himself a No. 1 selection, by Colorado in 1979. "What he went through scarred him. When I think of what he went through, I feel fortunate."

In hockey-mad centers, the expectations can be suffocating.

"I was insulated from the media," said Ramage of his time in Denver. "Bronco-mania, the Orange Crush craze, was in full swing then. Not many people paid attention to us. Being in New York or Toronto or Montreal it could have been devastating."

"Some people peak at 17 or 18," said Houle. "In French, we call it plaffoner, reaching the roof. You can't go any higher. Some kids get stronger and stronger with adversity. Others never seem to get over it."

Islander defenseman Denis Potvin, one of the 10 defensemen selected first, is happy he was part of a 20-year-old draft.

"I understand the legalities involved today," he said. "But those two years make such a difference, believe me. For me, being away from home for the first time, and especially being in New York, was far, far easier being 20 years old.

"It helped that my coach, Al Arbour, was a former defenseman and my brother Jean was there, but those extra two years sure helped, too. They made it easier for me, and I heard plenty of comparisons to Bobby Orr back then, which weren't easy to deal with.

"I later heard that Sam Pollock had been trying to make a deal to land me just before the draft. If he had, my career might've been completely different. I played 30 minutes a night right away with the Islanders. If I'd been a Canadien, with Robinson, Savard and Lapointe already on the blue line, not much chance I'd have been doing that so early in my career."

If some of these former No. 1s could share a word of advice with the No. 1s of the future, what would they tell them?

"I'd tell them what Bobby Clarke told me when I first broke into the league," replies Bridgman, "and that is: If you're honest all the time, you can't go wrong."

Says Potvin: "Be a sponge. Soak up everything you can. The worse thing you can do is come in and think you know it all, because you don't."

Houle: "Keep your world small. Don't get too high, don't get too wild. There's so much away from hockey that can hurt you."

When Pierre Turgeon was handed sweater No. 77 by the Buffalo Sabres at the draft table way back in '87, he made a plea which took on a double-edged meaning.

"Numbers," he said back then, "don't necessarily make players."

No. Not even if that number is 1.

George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.