Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

1,000 games.

Obviously, now I'm sure it's sunk in because you've experienced it.

You've hit the 1,000-game mark.

They did a great job of obviously saluting you, and I thought the pregame ceremony was outstanding, but what does it mean to you to play 1,000 games and, more importantly or moreover, 1,000 games for the same team, the Edmonton Oilers?

Is it like a new phone who it is?

How do you respond when you don't know who's writing you?

I drop my phone in the toilet.

That's the trick I use.

Yeah, I think that's the play with Ryan Nugent Hopkins.

Yeah, I mean, that run of first overall picks, Taylor Hall in 2010, yourself in 2011, Neil Yakupov in 2012.

what was that experience like?

Because it wasn't like the Oilers were dead last in the league every single year.

They won lotteries in a couple of those to get the first overall pick.

When you consider Taylor Hall was there the year before you, did that help you at all, that he had kind of just been through the ring or he had just been through that experience as a first overall pick?

How did that maybe affect your first year as a rookie in Edmonton?

Yeah, that might be the right choice.

And another first overall pick.

We were chatting with Ryan Nugent Hopkins, and you played on a line with him.

You played on the power play with him.

What's that mentality like when you see McDavid start to pick up steam?