The Twin Effect: Two Babies, Fewer Points?

The Odd Shift · October 2026

Cale Makar was enjoying a perfectly good start to the NHL season. Seven points in five games, three goals, four assists, and a scoring pace of 1.40 points per game.

Then his wife Tracy gave birth to twin boys.

Makar missed Colorado’s game against Dallas on October 13. He returned the following night, played 22:54 and recorded zero points.

A worrying development.

Fortunately, he collected two assists against Pittsburgh on Friday. Unfortunately, that still leaves him averaging just 1.00 points per game since becoming a father of twins.

A decline of 29%.

We decided to investigate whether NHL history offers any evidence that having twins might be bad for offensive production.

As it turns out, there are some rather suspicious precedents.

Anders Kallur: The original twin slump

In February 1981, New York Islanders forward Anders Kallur was having the best season of his NHL career.

Through 59 games, he had scored 31 goals and collected 54 points. A 50-goal season was looking like a realistic possibility.

Then, on February 16, his wife gave birth to twin daughters, Susanna and Jenny.

Kallur scored just five more goals over his remaining 19 games.

This wasn’t merely a brief scoring drought. His goal production was cut in half for the rest of the regular season.

Kallur’s production before and after the twins

Goals per game: −50%. Points per game: −43%.

Better yet, Kallur himself has acknowledged the phenomenon. In a 2024 interview with NHL.com, he recalled being on pace for 50 goals before the twins arrived, after which his scoring almost disappeared.

We have a documented birth date, a substantial decline in production and confirmation from the player himself.

By the standards of this investigation, that’s an exceptionally strong case.

Kallur still finished with 36 goals and 64 points and won another Stanley Cup with the Islanders.

His daughters later became elite international hurdlers, with Susanna setting a world indoor record in the 60-meter hurdles.

The family’s athletic production clearly survived. It simply moved to another sport.

Bowen Byram: The evidence keeps coming

Makar isn’t even the first NHL defenseman to welcome twins this October.

On October 3, Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Bowen Byram was in Buffalo preparing to face his former team when his wife Kailey called at approximately 5:30 in the morning.

The twins were coming.

Byram caught a flight back to Chicago, landed around 10:30 and made it to the hospital before his twin daughters arrived at 3:20 that afternoon.

An impressive performance under pressure.

His offensive production has been less impressive.

Last season with Buffalo, Byram recorded 42 points in 82 games, averaging 0.51 points per game.

In his four games since becoming a father of twins, he’s recorded one assist.

That’s 0.25 points per game, approximately 51% below last season’s average.

His first three games after the birth produced nothing. He finally collected an assist against Pittsburgh on October 13.

Then he missed Chicago’s next game with an upper-body injury.

There are, admittedly, some complications with this evidence.

Byram also went scoreless in his two games before the twins were born. He’s adjusting to a new team, and the injury has no established connection to his family situation.

Perhaps the twins were already affecting his production before arriving.

We have no evidence for that, but it would certainly help our theory.

Avalanche forward Milan Hejduk and his wife Zlatuse welcomed twin boys, Marek and David.

Hejduk returned to the ice the very next day and scored the game-winning goal against Minnesota.

An immediate setback for our investigation.

His broader seasonal numbers, however, offer some encouragement.

In 2002–03, Hejduk had won the Maurice Richard Trophy with 50 goals and 98 points.

During the 2003–04 season, when his twins arrived, he finished with 35 goals and 75 points.

That’s 15 fewer goals and 23 fewer points.

Of course, Hejduk’s production had already declined before January, and scoring the winning goal immediately after the birth doesn’t exactly support our hypothesis.

But the final numbers are lower.

For now, we’ll take it.

The evidence from Montreal

Jake Evans offers a more recent example.

The Canadiens center welcomed twin boys in August 2025, following a career-best offensive season.

In 2024–25, Evans recorded 36 points in 82 games, averaging 0.44 points per game.

The following season, he managed 24 points in 68 games.

His production fell to 0.35 points per game.

That’s a decline of approximately 20%.

Evans plays a primarily defensive role, and changes in deployment, teammates and shooting efficiency provide several plausible explanations.

Nevertheless, another NHL player became a father of twins and subsequently produced fewer points per game.

Our collection of suspicious coincidences continues to grow.

Unfortunately, not everyone cooperated

Thomas Vanek welcomed twin boys during the 2010–11 season.

Instead of experiencing a scoring decline, he improved from 53 points in 71 games the previous year to 73 points in 80 games.

His points-per-game average increased by approximately 22%.

Zach Parise also improved his scoring rate slightly during the season his twins were born in January 2014, although he was dealing with a foot injury around the same time.

These results are deeply unhelpful.

Apparently, some players respond to having twins by scoring more points.

Others score less.

It’s almost as if NHL production depends on factors unrelated to the number of newborn children in a player’s household.

The Twin Effect: Our findings

After examining the historical cases, we’ve assembled the following evidence.

Anders Kallur: -43%
Milan Hejduk: -24%
Jake Evans: -20%
Bowen Byram: -51%
Cale Makar: -29%
Thomas Vanek: +22%

Five declining scoring rates. One inconvenient improvement.

We’ve deliberately left out several other cases where the evidence is too limited or complicated by injuries and changes in playing time.

Is this statistically persuasive?

Not particularly.

Does it provide enough material to support a mildly alarming headline?

Absolutely.

Should fantasy managers worry about Makar?

Makar has already demonstrated that fatherhood hasn’t prevented him from collecting assists.

His two-point performance against Pittsburgh was reassuring.

But his scoring average remains 29% below where it stood before the twins arrived.

Meanwhile, Byram is producing at roughly half his previous season’s scoring rate, Anders Kallur’s goal production collapsed after his daughters were born, and Jake Evans experienced a noticeable decline the following year.

We could explain all of this through normal scoring variance, different teammates, injuries and changes in opportunity.

Instead, we’ll continue monitoring the NHL’s newest fathers of twins.

There is, after all, a perfectly reasonable possibility that none of this means anything.

The Odd Shift verdict: The Twin Effect remains unproven, but the historical numbers are suspicious enough to keep the investigation open.

We wouldn’t trade Cale Makar.

We would, however, like to know how much sleep he’s getting.

Data through October 16, 2026. Historical comparisons use regular-season statistics. Sources: NHL.com, Hockey-Reference, HockeySwedes, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Faceoff and contemporary player reporting.