Kirk Muller's Drop Off in Production

[AmericanDream]

Not sure if this has been discussed before, but Kirk Muller for much of my youth was a talented offensive player. Always near or above a ppg in his career, but all of a sudden his numbers fell off a cliff at the age of 27... Can anyone recall why he went 10 seasons for 2 different teams at a near ppg clip, then totally crashed in his 11th season on??? Even odder is the crash starts happening after a 94 point season!! I don't remember injuries being a thing, anything in particular that can be remembered here?

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[AmericanDream]

hahahaha, I literally searched and did not see anything on him, but there is a Muller traded thread half the page down...if this has been talked about there, I will look into it- my bad did not see anything.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Probably a combination of a few minor things.
Such a career arc being not that unusual at about that time, perhaps most for players a few years older. Gretzky was not as great in 1989-90 as in 1985-86, and certainly not in 1994.
1992/93 being the cutoff, a season where 90 percent of his peers had career highs.
The DPE arrived at about this time, his adjusted stats does not look AS much worse, Floridas playing style probably a problem.
Missed games does not do the situation any favors.

 

[tony d]

I believe I've heard he switched his game to more of a defensive 1 around that time instead of an offensive one.

 

[JianYang]

What I remember as kid watching muller play in Montreal, his style of game had him playing in the toughest areas of the ice. He lived in areas of the ice where punishment was severe.

I just assumed that added more mileage on him at a younger age.

Muller was my favorite habs player along with Roy back then, not only because he could score, but also because of how hard he worked.

 

[Big Phil]

I remember thinking how the Leafs were lucky to get Muller in 1996. I was thinking more along the lines of the 1980s and early 1990s Muller. By then he was well on his way to his transformation of a more defensive player. Or did his offense just drop off which forced him to rely more on defense? I don't know, but he was always very serviceable regardless.

 

[AmericanDream]

I mean the guy had 94 points then 57 then nothing above 40 again...if he was focusing on defense I don't think he did that great a job as his plus/minus is pretty bad...and yes I am not a huge believer in that stat solely, but he was a minus player every single year for 4 DIFFERENT TEAMS since his 94 point year. Just an odd drop to me, and has to be one of the bigger drops of consistent production from that era.

 

[JianYang]

I mean the guy had 94 points then 57 then nothing above 40 again...if he was focusing on defense I don't think he did that great a job as his plus/minus is pretty bad...and yes I am not a huge believer in that stat solely, but he was a minus player every single year for 4 DIFFERENT TEAMS since his 94 point year. Just an odd drop to me, and has to be one of the bigger drops of consistent production from that era.

Further to my point regarding his mileage. Someone in the other thread mentioned that muller played with a broken collarbone, and was never the same offensive player after getting surgery.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

maybe mike richards is a decent comp? similar workmanlike games, both very young captains on young cores that fell apart, both guys started breaking down after cup runs at 26 and steeply fell.

 

[The Panther]

I can understand Muller's drop-off starting in 1996 or 1997 (hitting age 30, dead-puck era, transition to defensive forward, etc.). Harder to understand is his huge drop-off in 1993-94, one year after winning the Cup with Montreal. He's on the same team, of about the same offensive level, with the same coach, in the same era. But he suddenly drops from 94 to 57 points. Maybe he was suddenly getting less ice-time for some reason, but I can't recall why...

Anyway, he never recovered, offensively, after that 1993-94 season.