Tampa Bay C Vincent Lecavalier remembers bracing for those first big hits -- grumpy old NHL players barreling in, loaded with experience and ill intentions. C Joe Thornton remembers watching much of his rookie season from the Bruins bench, dazed and confused by the trip from hot prospect to NHL punching bag.

Lecavalier and Thornton both survived that trial by fire as 18-year-olds who vaulted straight from the draft to the NHL. But that doesn't make it the easy -- or the recommended -- path to NHL glory.

"The players' physical strength is amazing," says Lecavalier, drafted No.1 in '98. "When you are in the corner and defensemen are coming at you -- in juniors, they were smaller than me. Now they're 6'5", 240. It's a whole different story."

Used to be only surefire superstars came to the NHL as teens. That first jarring year was worth the risk for Mario Lemieux and Ray Bourque. Lesser talents -- not to mention egos and bones -- could be shattered.

Expansion changed that. Losing teams feel pressure to rush more kids. The past five No.1's have made the jump, with varying luck, from RW Ilya Kovalchuk (wow) to C Patrik Stefan (ugh) to Lecavalier (somewhere in between).

The danger of too-much, too-soon is creating another l'affaire Daigle. The Senators picked Alexandre Daigle No.1 in 1993, and their franchise forward quickly became the poster child for draft busts. He had 16 points in 1997-98 when the Senators traded him to Philadelphia. By 2000, he was done.

So it was no surprise when a wary Ottawa stunned its top pick last year, C Jason Spezza, by shipping him back to juniors. "This isn't a sprint, it's a marathon," says Bobby Orr, who made his own jump into the NHL in 1966 and is now Spezza's agent. "I can remember turning pro when I was 18. I was scared to death." Orr thinks NHL teams are skilled at choosing who stays and who doesn't. "This game is all about confidence," says Thornton. "You're used to being the biggest thing, and then you're not playing that much. It's hard."

This article appears in the June 24 issue of ESPN The Magazine.