Why did Kirk Muller get traded to the New York Islanders in 1994-95?

[Michael Whiteacre]

This was a '94-'95 midseason trade where Muller got dealt to the New York Islanders with Mathieu Schneider in return for Long Island sending Pierre Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov to the Habs.

I know Kirk Muller was hindered by a separated shoulder for much of '93-'94 where the injury, along with winning the Stanley Cup in '92-'93 with Montreal, marked the beginning of a slow decline for Muller that would gradually turn him from a superstar scoring LW to an older, more defensive-minded grinder in his later years where he kinda stopped focusing on scoring in favor of more defense.

Muller's prime years were 1984-85 through 1992-93, a span of his first nine seasons as a potential franchise player when he focused on scoring. He was the guy who was previously a holdout in New Jersey that led to his trade to Montreal in 1991, where Muller replaced Shayne Corson as the Habs' #1 LW and made him obsolete and expendable.

End result was that Muller refused to report to the Isles where he was pretty much suspended from the team for part of '94-'95 and '95-'96, while Schneider was willing report and play for the Isles. Basically, the N.Y. Islanders were supposed to be winning the Muller-Turgeon trade since Muller was a strong veteran leader while Turgeon couldn't take his teams to the promised land, but the end results from this trade kind of makes it 50-50 and even.

Anyway, why did Montreal decide to get rid of Kirk Muller via trade in 1994-95? And what were the N.Y. Islanders' reasons for obtaining Muller? Did the Isles not like what they were seeing from Turgeon that they contemplated replacing him with Muller? And did they intend on shoehorning Muller as one of the Isles' top two centers along with Ray Ferraro?

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[vadim sharifijanov]

why for montreal? a much better offensive player who happened to be french-canadian. also, iirc, muller, who was voted by his teammates as captain, refused to learn french.

why for new york? same reason as why montreal would later trade turgeon away: team that turgeon was captaining was willing to grossly overpay on talent to fill a (perceived) lack of toughness and leadership. in the case of the montreal-st louis trade, corson's leadership was definitely also perceived.

 

[VanIslander]

Muller's best 5-year span (including 6 of his best 8 seasons) were in New Jersey. Why was he even traded to the Habs?

 

[optimus2861]

I've always said that this trade broke Muller. He never wanted to leave Montreal, he'd won the Cup there, he was team captain, you could've torn him open and found the CH tattooed on his heart. He'd supposedly been told just days before that he wouldn't be traded. And then, bam.

He briefly perked up when he played for Toronto, but he was never quite the same after Montreal turfed him.

It actually was a solid return on Muller, so as a hockey trade it made sense. Speculation was that Schneider had to go (rumoured affair with a teammate's wife, I believe was the scuttlebutt), and perhaps the deal only went down with additional pieces.

'Twas a bad time period to be a Canadiens captain. They moved Chelios, Carbonneau, Muller, Keane, Damphousse and Turgeon all shortly (2-3 seasons, max) after they'd been named captain.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Muller's best 5-year span (including 6 of his best 8 seasons) were in New Jersey. Why was he even traded to the Habs?

contract dispute. the third of lou lamoriello's purges, after verbeek and shanahan, with sean burke next up.

lou traded away almost his entire late '80s core, but got back claude lemieux, scott stevens, stephane richer (his leading scorer in '95), and bobby holik. not bad.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I've always said that this trade broke Muller. He never wanted to leave Montreal, he'd won the Cup there, he was team captain, you could've torn him open and found the CH tattooed on his heart. He'd supposedly been told just days before that he wouldn't be traded. And then, bam.

kirk muller, wendel clark, trevor linden, none of those guys were ever the same. maybe it's being the gritty canadian captain of a canadian team... or maybe it's going to the islanders?

a decent argument that ryan smyth, who wasn't the oilers' captain but might as well have been, belongs in that list too. but his career didn't fall off quite as steep a cliff as muller, clark, or linden.

 

[optimus2861]

Wendel Clark went to the Nordiques first and I think he performed all right there. But otherwise, yeah, quite the parallels.

 

[Brodeur]

contract dispute.

It's funny reading those old articles since the salary disputes were so small compared to what they are now.

kirk muller, wendel clark, trevor linden, none of those guys were ever the same. maybe it's being the gritty canadian captain of a canadian team... or maybe it's going to the islanders?

I forget why it was on, but I remember seeing a 1995-96 Islanders game on ESPN Classic a few years back. Their starting line was Clark-Muller-Bertuzzi and I thought "Oh, was Milbury trying to get his own Legion of Doom type line going?"

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Mad Mike at work. As an Islander fan, ripping out his heart for not reporting sounds fair.

 

[MS]

Muller had fallen off a cliff and simply wasn't a top-6 player anymore. He'd been complete garbage in 1994-95 and his team (which made the playoffs) had been outscored 39-18 with him on the ice.

That Serge Savard managed to turn him into Pierre Turgeon was nothing short of a miracle. His 'grit' and 'Cup-winning captain' reputation carried a lot of weight still, even though he was rubbish. That said, 10 months later he was traded to Toronto for their backup goalie.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Muller had fallen off a cliff and simply wasn't a top-6 player anymore. He'd been complete garbage in 1994-95 and his team (which made the playoffs) had been outscored 39-18 with him on the ice.

That Serge Savard managed to turn him into Pierre Turgeon was nothing short of a miracle. His 'grit' and 'Cup-winning captain' reputation carried a lot of weight still, even though he was rubbish. That said, 10 months later he was traded to Toronto for their backup goalie.

Miracle Mad Mike Milbury. It has a ring to it. How is he still on the air?

 

[kaiser matias]

Mad Mike at work. As an Islander fan, ripping out his heart for not reporting sounds fair.

At the risk of sounding like I'm supporting Milbury in any way as a manager, he was not behind this trade. It happened April 5, 1995, while Milbury was not hired on as GM until December 12.

 

[MS]

At the risk of sounding like I'm supporting Milbury in any way as a manager, he was not behind this trade. It happened April 5, 1995, while Milbury was not hired on as GM until December 12.

Yeah, this trade was done by Don Maloney.

 

[MXD]

I always figured Montreal had to get rid of Schneider for lots of reasons (one mentionned above) and wanted to get theirs hands on Turgeon.

Muller and Malakhov were probably collaterals, so to speak.

 

[seventieslord]

kirk muller, wendel clark, trevor linden, none of those guys were ever the same. maybe it's being the gritty canadian captain of a canadian team... or maybe it's going to the islanders?

a decent argument that ryan smyth, who wasn't the oilers' captain but might as well have been, belongs in that list too. but his career didn't fall off quite as steep a cliff as muller, clark, or linden.

wow, how did I never make this connection?

 

[Bexlyspeed]

it was the Islanders. they had no direction, well they did have a direction, it was straight down.

they changed the uniforms to those fisherman monstrosities. they fired Maloney, hired Milbury and they had no desire to spend money.

I do hate Muller for not giving it a chance, but they really were going nowhere fast.

 

[ThreeLeftSkates]

Yeah, this trade was done by Don Maloney.

My goof. I still do not understand how he got the job, either.

 

[Neutrinos]

Muller was never really a "superstar"

 

[The Panther]

they changed the uniforms to those fisherman monstrosities.

I never understood what they were thinking there.

"We're on the residential island of New York City... we'll be FISHERMEN!"

Doesn't really seem like brilliant planning/marketing.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I always figured Montreal had to get rid of Schneider for lots of reasons (one mentionned above) and wanted to get theirs hands on Turgeon.

Muller and Malakhov were probably collaterals, so to speak.

i always thought of malakhov and schneider as the collaterals. not just positionally, but both were extremely promising but also extremely flawed offensive defensemen. malakhov was more of a mogilny type if you know what i mean, schneider was more inherently flawed, like a craig janney or, to name another problem hab who had to be traded, a mike ribeiro; he is what is he is and you have to take the bad with the good. but with both guys, it was like, if he ever puts it all together...

 

[BLNY]

Muller's best 5-year span (including 6 of his best 8 seasons) were in New Jersey. Why was he even traded to the Habs?

That's one way to look at history. Another would be to look at the 92-93 season in Montreal where he had 37 goals and 94 points - identical to 87-88.

His point totals fell off hard the next season, the lockout season things weren't good with another slow start. So they traded him.

I think they got great return. Turgeon, albeit soft, had a very good first season in Montreal. The club was being run by idiots at the time and, imo, they jumped the gun when they traded him for Corson and Barron (the guy who made no secret he didn't like being in Montreal). They banked Koivu was ready for #1 and Damphousse could be #2. I'd have converted Damphousse to the wing myself and left Turgeon and Koivu as my centers.

 

[Michael Whiteacre]

That's one way to look at history. Another would be to look at the '92-'93 season in Montreal where he had 37 goals and 94 points - identical to 87-88.

His point totals fell off hard the next season ('93-'94), the lockout season things weren't good with another slow start. So they traded him.

Muller's point totals abruptly took a nosedive in '93-'94 because he was hobbled with a separated shoulder that was hurting him for much of the season since the 1993 preseason. That's what marked the beginning of Muller's gradually slow decline from a former solid scorer to a strictly defensive-minded fourth liner for the rest of his NHL career.

 

[FerrisRox]

i always thought of malakhov and schneider as the collaterals. not just positionally, but both were extremely promising but also extremely flawed offensive defensemen. malakhov was more of a mogilny type if you know what i mean, schneider was more inherently flawed, like a craig janney or, to name another problem hab who had to be traded, a mike ribeiro; he is what is he is and you have to take the bad with the good. but with both guys, it was like, if he ever puts it all together...

What about Mathieu Schneider made you think he was "extremely flawed?" Whats the bad you had to take with the good?

I think Schneider was absolutely more valuable than Kirk Muller at that point. He was an excellent defensemen.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

reviving this thread because we've talked about muller falling off a cliff after his best season, when he was doug gilmour-lite for the habs en route to the cup.

here's something i found in a season in time:

"On the first shift of the game, on a clean hit from Mike Ricci, I tore the cartilage off my collarbone," recalls Kirk Muller. Unlike Schneider's, Muller's injury would be kept secret and he would continue to play, but only having his collarbone frozen before each game.

if he played the entire playoffs with torn cartilage, maybe it makes sense that he was never the same afterwards.

this is alluded to in the OP, but we have a direct culprit here.

 

[Hobnobs]

Locker room cancer Schneider and primadonna Muller. Add sulking Wendel Clark to that equation.. Poor Isles never had a chance...