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Being summertime, let's take on a lighter-themed topic. In the history of the NHL, what are the most common first names?
Mike 143
Bob 108
John 100
Bill 88
Dave 87
Jim 82
Steve 82
Paul 67
Brian 63
Chris 63
The most common name is Mike, far more common than any other. Of course, this doesn't even include the Michaels and the Michels. Grouping names together, it remains the league's most popular name, but not by as much.
The Michaels 206
The Roberts 194
The Davids 134
The James 130
The Johns 127
The Williams 114
The Stephens 112
6.8% of NHL players have either a name of Michael or Robert. Let's now take a look at players, by first name, who have played the most games and have scored the most points.
GP
Mike 41660
Bob 31875
Dave 31208
Steve 24384
Bill 24072
Doug 21438
John 21136
Paul 19476
Brian 18589
Jim 17807
PTS
Mike 20639
Dave 14427
Steve 13179
Bob 12737
Bill 11406
John 11120
Doug 11053
Paul 10433
Brian 10319
Mark 9506
While naming your children Mike or Bob doesn't guarantee them a spot in the NHL, they certainly played a lot of games. But when it comes to dominating the league, which names are best? In terms of raw points-per-game, the best are Newsy, Sidney, Jaromir, Evgeni and Dany. Hm, something tells me that certain players are skewing those results. Let's set a minimum of 100 player-seasons, even though that means skipping the Bernies (1.00), Marios (0.92), Guys (0.78) and Gordies (0.77).
Name Seasons PTS/GP
Bobby 210 0.75
Jean 108 0.73
Wayne 189 0.73
Phil 159 0.70
Dale 108 0.69
Pierre 116 0.68
Ray 132 0.66
Alex 178 0.65
Denis 108 0.64
Peter 240 0.63
Bobby wins, thanks to Bobby Hull, Orr and Clarke of course. In fact, Bobby is 0.75 while Bob is just 0.40. I guess early in a player's career if he's really good they start calling him Bobby, otherwise he's doomed to be on the checking line. I always went by Rob (0.38) or Robert (0.51), so I guess that was my problem. I should have insisted on being called Bobby. And grown a mullet. I could have been one of the great ones.
Meanwhile Mike checks in at 0.50, although Michel is 0.68 (in 71 seasons). That explains why my parents pushed my brother so hard in French class.
Those being the best names, which ones are the worst? Once again, the minimum is 100 player-seasons, otherwise we'd have Colin, Harold, Allan, Neil and Aaron (boy, the Broten parents really didn't want their kids to succeed at hockey).
Name Seasons PTS/GP
Jay 107 0.24
Gord 144 0.27
Sean 101 0.28
Matt 175 0.30
Jack 250 0.30
Jamie 146 0.33
Nick 126 0.33
Jeff 320 0.36
Jim 481 0.37
Gerry 127 0.37
In the bottom ten you have Jay, Jamie and Jim, all variations of the same name, James. So if you have a son and you want him to be a stay-at-home defenseman, you know what to call him. As for Gord, it's really his own fault - he should have insisted on being called Gordie.
That concludes this light-hearted edition of Howe and Why. I'll get back into more serious stuff next time, until then, I hope you're enjoying your summer. As always, drop me a line, I love hearing from you.
Robert Vollman is an author of Hockey Prospectus.
You can contact Robert by clicking here or click here to see Robert's other articles.
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