Hall of Fame awaits pieces of hockey history with Connor McDavid’s debut

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Connor McDavid has experienced many firsts since he was drafted No. 1 overall by the Edmonton Oilers this summer, but none are likely to compare with his inaugural regular-season game in the National Hockey League on Thursday night.

A fruitful sporting career is a collection of moments – the physical feats they require and the objects involved in making them happen.

The sweater worn for a first shift in a first game in a first season. The puck that found the back of a net for a first goal. The stick that puck was shot from. Skates that helped carry a Stanley Cup.

For athletes, the items are keepsakes that link material and memory. For fans and collectors, they represent love of a player or team, a moment in time, an investment even. For the Hockey Hall of Fame, they are pieces of history.

A player such as McDavid rarely comes along. If he performs and develops as expected, there could be scoring records, Stanley Cups and individual awards, and an abundance of smaller milestones along the way.

His first NHL game seems like a shrewd time to start setting a few things aside.

The Oilers very well may grab a piece of gear from his first NHL game in St. Louis on Thursday, either as a souvenir for him or for purposes of their own. The team is moving out of Rexall Place into a new arena next season, and plans are already being discussed to collect historic items for display at Rogers Place.

The five Stanley Cup banners will surely head there, as will the retired sweaters hanging from the rafters belonging to Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and a handful of other players. A bronze statue of the Great One will be moved to the new rink, as will a dressing-room door that has been dented over 40-odd years.

The Hall of Fame has a jersey McDavid wore with the Erie Otters. The Hall will likely soon find itself with much more.

"Normally, we ask for a particular item at the completion of a season, or if there is a milestone of note we are aware of," said Craig Campbell, the manager of archives for the Hall of Fame. "There is usually a sense of pride in donating an item.

"It's better to plan now than to try to go back and find things 20 years later."

Panic grips the hockey world when a prominent item such as a game-used stick or glove suddenly goes missing. Reebok offered a $10,000 reward and set up a hotline after Sidney Crosby lost both in the aftermath of scoring Team Canada's winning goal in the gold-medal game at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

The stick was found, mistakenly placed in a shipment of items headed for the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg, Russia. One of Crosby's teammates, Patrice Bergeron, discovered the glove in his equipment bag. The players' dressing stalls were side by side, and Bergeron inadvertently grabbed Crosby's sweaty mitt believing it was his own.

Brian McDavid, Connor's dad, says he has considered the implications of Thursday night's game, but has not yet requested that the Oilers save anything.

It would be surprising if he didn't ask.

"It is definitely on my mind," he said. "We have his first pair of skates, every jersey he has ever played in, all of his trophies.

"We have it all."

Jennifer Bullano Ridgley, senior director of communications for the Pittsburgh Penguins, says Crosby was given the jersey and stick from his first game. He keeps key items throughout the year.

The Islanders, meanwhile, saved a few items from John Tavares's first regular-season game in 2009. The team saves all the pucks from their players' first points and goals, has them mounted and framed, and presents them to the players later.

McDavid, who has turned professional at the age of 18, says he hasn't had time to give it much thought.

His agent, Jeff Jackson, says one of the prodigy's game-worn sweaters from this season has to be retained as part of a contractual obligation with Upper Deck, the official trading-card licensee for the NHL. After McDavid scores his first goal, the puck will be retrieved by one of his teammates, handed off to somebody on the bench and then be presented to him later.

Jackson, who played in 263 games and scored 38 goals over nine years with the Maple Leafs, Rangers, Nordiques and Blackhawks, still has the puck from his first tally against the Hartford Whalers during the 1985-86 season.

"I can still recall the goal in my head," Jackson said.

For McDavid, there will likely be many more big moments than that, right to the end of his career.

After Gretzky announced his retirement in 1999, sticks from his final few games at Madison Square Garden were saved. At the end of a shift or during a stoppage in play, No. 99 would hand them to a Rangers' equipment manager to be set aside.

In 2005, one of Crosby's jerseys went missing after Team Canada's gold-medal victory at the world junior championships in Grand Forks, N.D. It was found later in a mailbox outside a post office in Lachute, Que.

But some significant articles never turn up.

The goalie stick Lester Patrick used while making 18 saves for the Rangers against the Montreal Maroons in Game 2 of the 1928 Stanley Cup final was never seen again.

With hockey history in mind, it's better to start keeping an eye on McDavid's accomplishments now to ensure his memorable moments don't simply become memories.