Rules
Athletes with September birthdays and the NHL draft line
How the NHL's September 15 draft line sorts September-born players, with Ovechkin, Matthews and MacKinnon worked through the rule.
What to take away
- The NHL draft eligibility date is September 15. A player must turn 18 on or before it in the draft year.
- Births from September 16 to December 31 wait an extra year, which places the player at the older end of the following draft class.
- Alex Ovechkin and Auston Matthews, both born September 17, fall just after the line. Nathan MacKinnon, born September 1, falls well before it.
- Youth hockey runs on a different date, January 1, so one September birth is read two ways in one career.
- Work out the draft year from a sourced birth date, never from a quoted age.
The rule is a birthday test, not a season test
The NHL draft uses one date. A player must turn 18 on or before September 15 of the draft year to be eligible in that June's draft. The test is a birthday, not a season, so two players born two days apart can land in different classes.
Youth hockey uses another line. USA Hockey and Hockey Canada set their age bands on January 1, which leaves a September birth in the older half of the band. Players at the far end of that band are covered under athletes with January birthdays, and the draft then applies a second line at a later age. The next month's sports lines are on athletes with February birthdays.
Working out the draft year in three steps
A birth date alone is enough to find the draft year.
- Add 18 years to the birth date to find the 18th birthday.
- Compare that birthday with September 15 of the same year. On or before the line, the player is eligible in that June's draft.
- After the line, from September 16 on, the player waits for the following June's draft.
Cutoff creates age gap
- Just after cutoffOldest in group
- Just before next cutoffYoungest in group
- Nearly a yearAge gap within group
- SelectionGap becomes real skill difference
Alex Ovechkin turned 18 in September 2003, just after the deadline, and was drafted in June 2004. Auston Matthews followed the same path in 2015 and 2016.
Which birth dates fall on which side
The line cuts through the month. The first half of September behaves like the summer months, and the second half behaves like the autumn ones.
| Birth date | 18th birthday against September 15 | Eligible in |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 to September 15 | On or before | The June draft of the year the player turns 18 |
| September 16 to December 31 | After | The June draft of the following year |
A player born on September 10 of either year would have been drafted twelve months earlier than a September 17 birth. The extra year places the later birth at the older end of the following draft class.
Three September hockey names, three outcomes
All three dates come from standard reference works. Two of the names share September 17.
| Player | Birth date | Against September 15 | Draft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Ovechkin | September 17, 1985 | Two days after | June 2004 |
| Auston Matthews | September 17, 1997 | Two days after | June 2016 |
| Nathan MacKinnon | September 1, 1995 | Fourteen days before | The year he turned 18 |
Ovechkin and Matthews missed the line by two days. MacKinnon beat it by two weeks, so the rule gave him the earlier draft.
What the waiting year does
A waiting year puts a player at the older end of the next class, and the oldest in a band are selected more often. Researchers describe this as the relative age effect.
The extra coaching that follows selection compounds the first advantage. The mechanism belongs to the selection system, not to the athletes.
Two football lines that also start in September
Hockey is not the only sport where September sits on a boundary. English football academies group players by school year, which begins in September, so a child born then sits near the top of the year group.
US Youth Soccer used an August 1 cutoff until 2016, which made September children among the youngest. Its line has been January 1 since 2016, so the same child now sits in the older half.
The same birth date can put one child first and another last. The rule, not the month, decides which.
Checking a hockey birth date before you repeat it
A sports entry needs five fields. Store the dates and compute the age when you display it.
What a sports entry records
- Birth date, with its source
- Event date
- Document type behind the date
- Cutoff rule for the competition
- Whether the date is disputed
- Birth date, with its source named
- Draft year, so the rule can be applied
- The type of document behind the date
- The cutoff rule for the competition
- Whether the date is disputed, and by whom
In the United States, the CDC guide to vital records notes that the federal government does not distribute certificates or indexes with identifying information, so the issuing office holds the record.
The famous September birthdays index marks which better-known names rest on a sourced date and which rest on a compilation. The same month in other fields sits under actors with September birthdays, musicians with September birthdays and historical figures with September birthdays.
Common questions
Why was Ovechkin drafted in 2004 and not 2003?
He turned 18 in September 2003, just after the September 15 deadline. A player born September 16 to December 31 waits an extra year, so his draft came in June 2004.
Does a September 1 birth change the draft year?
Yes, compared with a September 17 birth. A player born September 1 turns 18 before the line, so he is eligible in that June's draft, while a September 17 birth waits twelve months.
Is the youth cutoff the same as the draft line?
No. USA Hockey and Hockey Canada youth bands use January 1, while the NHL draft uses September 15. One player can sit in the older half of a youth band and at the older end of a draft class.
