In 2011 Malcom Gladwell’s book “Outlier: The Story Of Success” he has a chapter on hockey and how much of an advantage is it for kids to be born earlier in the year.
As you know in minor hockey you are grouped in your birth year but kids born in January on average will be bigger, taller and stronger than kids born in December. This gives the earlier in the year born kids a head start and a big advantage.
The theory is that players born earlier in the year will, for the most part, be the better players than other kids in their age group, so growing up they will continue to be on the best teams, play with and against better players, get better coaching and the players born later in the year will struggle to ever be at the same level.
This is how the numbers look in the entire CHL as of January 5, 2017.
– WHL – 73.3% of all players were born January-June.
– OHL – 73.8% of all players were born January-June.
– QMJHL – 69.1% of all players were born January-June.
– WHL – 54.2% were born January-April.
– OHL – 52.6% were born January-April.
– QMJHL – 51.6% were born January-April.
– WHL – 41.6% were born January-March.
– OHL – 41.8% were born January-March.
– QMJHL – 37.4% were born January-March.
– WHL – 31.6% were born April-June.
– OHL – 32.0% were born April-June.
– QMJHL – 31.6% were born April-June.
– WHL – 16.2% were born in January, 3% in December.
– OHL – 13.7% were born in January, 2.5% in December.
– QMJHL – 13.9% were born in January, 3.6% in December.
– WHL – Of the players born in 2000, 90.6% were born January-June.
– OHL – Of the players born in 2000, 81.0% were born January-June.
– QMJHL – Of the players born in 2000, 80.6% were born January-June.
| WHL | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
| January 86 | 10 | 21 | 21 | 17 | 17 |
| February 63 | 8 | 13 | 11 | 20 | 11 |
| March 72 | 9 | 17 | 22 | 17 | 7 |
| April 67 | 8 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 8 |
| May 55 | 9 | 15 | 10 | 17 | 4 |
| June 46 | 3 | 17 | 12 | 13 | 1 |
| July 38 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 2 |
| August 18 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| September 31 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 8 | 0 |
| October 21 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| November 18 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| December 16 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
| Total 531 | 62 | 138 | 141 | 137 | 53 |
| OHL | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
| January 66 | 12 | 14 | 7 | 25 | 8 |
| February 68 | 7 | 13 | 19 | 19 | 10 |
| March 67 | 5 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 10 |
| April 52 | 7 | 9 | 17 | 15 | 4 |
| May 60 | 7 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 7 |
| June 42 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 6 |
| July 31 | 3 | 14 | 2 | 9 | 3 |
| August 33 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 3 |
| September 27 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 4 |
| October 18 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| November 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| December 12 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Total 481 | 55 | 103 | 123 | 142 | 58 |
| QMJHL | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
| January 62 | 6 | 10 | 19 | 19 | 8 |
| February 46 | 8 | 18 | 4 | 11 | 5 |
| March 59 | 5 | 14 | 24 | 11 | 5 |
| April 63 | 8 | 21 | 16 | 14 | 4 |
| May 44 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 15 | 1 |
| June 34 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 2 |
| July 32 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| August 25 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 1 |
| September 25 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| October 21 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| November 19 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| December 16 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| Total 446 | 56 | 126 | 120 | 113 | 31 |
