I was a bit shocked to hear from my neighbour that his kid's age group (age 6) was already being separated into "elite" level kids and "everyone else". Most of those kids are still learning to skate, let alone be considered elite anything.
There is a chapter in the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell devoted to hockey development. Bottom line is that unless your child happens to be born between January and about March, their chances of making it to the elite level drop dramatically.
A recent article in the National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01...-into-the-nhl/