Being Born In First Six Months Of The Year Virtually Ensures Success In Ice Hockey

Planning to start a family in the future? Would you like your child to grow up a successful ice hockey player? If you said yes, the first thing you need to concentrate on is timing. According to data from the Ontario Hockey League, if that child is born in the last six months of the year, his chances are reduced by 75%.

For those who don’t know, the Ontario Hockey League is one of three major junior hockey leagues in Canada that account for a large number of players that move on to play in the National Hockey League. The league consists of seventeen teams in the province of Ontario, as well as, two teams in the U.S. state of Michigan and one in the state of Pennsylvania.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote of this phenomenon in his book ‘Outliers’. After much research, Gladwell concluded that those born earlier in the calendar year had a much better chance of becoming successful in life. The Ontario Hockey League proves, for the 2010-11 season anyway, to be no exception.

74.6% of the 484 hockey players on OHL rosters this season are born in the first six months of the year. The first three months of the year account for nearly 44% of all OHL players’ birthdays. The months of February and March alone account for nearly 30%, and that’s with one of those months only having 28 days.

The raw breakdown reads like this: January – 68 (14%); February – 71 (14.7%); March – 71 (14.7%); April – 53 (11%); May – 53 (11%); June – 45 (9.3%); July – 24 (5%); August – 23 (4.8%); September – 18 (3.7%); October – 24 (5%); November – 18 (3.7%); December – 16 (3.3%).

Two teams, the Guelph Storm and Belleville Bulls, each have eight players born in one month. With the rosters averaging out at 24 players per team, that’s a third of the team’s birthdays in just one month. The Kingston Frontenacs are an oddity with seven players born in January and seven born in May. More than half of the Frontenacs are have birthdays in just those two months.

In a 365 day year, the middle point is between the 182nd and 183rd day. When the birthdays are added together and divided by the number of players, the highest, or latest, average is found on the Sudbury Wolves. The average birthday on the Sudbury Roster falls on the 159th day of the year, over twenty days before the halfway point. Only four teams have an average of 150 or more. The lowest is the Guelph Storm with just 88.

It would almost seem logical, then, that the teams with the lower average birthday, or the ‘oldest’ players, would be the better teams. This is not so. The Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors, Ottawa 67’s and Oshawa Generals are 1, 2 and 4 in the Eastern Conference standings at the time of this article being published. The three teams are three of the four in the league with an average birthday more than 150.

The Owen Sound Attack lead the Western Conference yet have the latest average birth date in the conference at day number 146. The Guelph Storm, who were previously mentioned to have the lowest average at 88, currently sit in last place in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, albeit not by much.

Why does this happen and why should you push to have your child born in the first months of the year? It’s actually pretty simple. From Tyke on up to Junior, the hockey eligibility for each age level runs from January 1 to December 31. Quite logically, those born earlier in the year are more developed physically and mentally by the start of the hockey season in the fall. They’ve simply had a head start on the rest of their age group that were born later in the year.

Does this mean that a child born in July to December should not bother lacing up the skates and just try to be the best darn fry-boy McDonalds has ever seen? Absolutely not. Wayne Gretzky was born on January 26, Bobby Orr has a birthday every year on March 20 and Gordie Howe was born on March 31. However, Mario Lemieux was born on October 5, Sidney Crosby was born on August 7 and Alexander Ovechkin is a September 17 baby. These six represent hockey’s best from today and yesteryear and they’re split right down the middle, ultimately proving that anyone can be a star no matter on what day of the year they’re born.