For those of you that don’t know what the ‘birthday bias’ in minor hockey is, it’s the theory that players born later in the year are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to development in minor hockey. That’s because the universal age cutoff is December 31 for all most leagues, therefore players born in December are playing with players nearly a year older for most of their developmental career. In a sport as competitive as minor hockey, this means the younger players won’t get the same opportunities as others on their team.
Trying To Find The Solution To ‘Birthday Bias’
↵Bruce McCurdy from The Copper & Blue has examined this bias, and has attempted to find a solution to the problem.
↵↵While there have been some adjustments to the ages of the various divisions since then, one thing that has never changed is that the birthday cutoff for every division is December 31. Suggestions to institute a rolling cycle of cutoff dates that would change a few times over the course of an individual player’s minor career have received lip service but no action. The proposal is apt to cause adminstrative headaches, and inertia is what it is.
↵So let’s take a new approach to rolling birthdates. Rather than an ongoing series of changes, let’s make a single change to the entire system which should balance the scales for the foreseeable future. The concept is simply to establish different cut-off dates for each level of minor hockey
↵↵He goes on to even list what the best cutoff dates should be. When the majority of hockey players born in January have a distinct advantage over those born in November, then it’s common sense to change things up, right?
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