Planting Roots

“Should we plant a garden this summer?”

A simple question Kirk Muller asked his wife Stacey after arriving back home on Loughborough Lake last spring. Stacey knows too well the summers are short, things get busy and then it’s time for Kirk to leave for another hockey season.

This year it was different. They are staying home and putting down roots at their lakeside home.

A year ago Kirk told Stacey it would be his final NHL season. Kirk was on the last year of a three-year deal in Washington and when the Capitals missed the playoffs they parted ways the end of April.

The garden was planted and later expanded, now it includes raising chickens and keeping bees for honey. Kirk says, “who knows what will happen next year.”

Married for 36 years the Muller’s have four grown daughters and six grandchildren. Kirk’s hockey travels have taken them to ten different NHL cities, plus Milwaukee where Kirk coached part of one season in the AHL before going to Carolina.

Kirk isn’t used to being home this time of year as the fall colours arrive at the lake and a new hockey season begins. Kirk is staying busy, settling into retirement and not missing being away from the stressful life of being an NHL coach.

“Coaching is a grind now, you have to be all in, it’s 9 to 10 months of the year. I will never say never that I won’t get back to it one day, I did have a few calls over the summer, but I needed a break and decided to walk away. I’m enjoying it.”    

On his way home from D.C. at the end of last season, Kirk had just crossed over the Thousand Islands Bridge back into Canada when he got a call from the Montreal Canadiens – asking if he would carry the torch in a pre-game ceremony before a second-round playoff game with Buffalo.

The timing was surreal given that Kirk had decided he was retiring. An opportunity to return to Montreal where he reached the pinnacle of his career, scored a Stanley Cup-winning goal and spent ten years as a coach.

In front of 20,000 deafening fans, Muller carried the symbolic torch for the historic franchise into the Bell Centre. It was the perfect ending to his NHL career.

“It was just the perfect time for me to reconnect with the Habs. Montreal has always felt like a second home for our family. The city has been good to us, our girls spent time going to school there, and it was a very special time in my career.”

Kirk joined the Montreal Canadiens alumni group, an opportunity to renew old friendships with former teammates and represent the organization. Last weekend Muller took part in a couple large fundraising events in Toronto and went to the Leafs–Senators game.

Kirk, a former Leaf, spent almost 40 years in the NHL at ice level. Now he was sitting in the stands, getting curious looks from fans who noticed him.

Muller has joined a new team, BGC South East – the Boys & Girls Club of Kingston – he is the new Mentorship Ambassador, helping mentor young kids in our community.

‘It’s just the right time for me to start giving back. The facilities there are incredible, Harold Parsons and his group have done a great job, and it gives kids a chance to feel a part of something and play some sports. I feel privileged to be involved and it makes you feel good to be around the kids.”

Kirk has also been in demand with corporate speaking engagements. As a two-time former NHL captain and Stanley Cup champion, he has lots to share on leadership and team building to create a winning environment in sports and in business. More details at Kirk’s website, https://thekirkmuller.com

A few months ago, I reached out to Stuart McComish, Senior Manager of Statistics and Research for the National Hockey League, to see where Kirk ranked among the all-time NHL leaders with the most combined seasons as a player and coach.

It was not a statistic they actively tracked, but Stuart did some digging and discovered that Kirk’s 39 NHL seasons rank him sixth all-time – alongside Hall of Famer Larry Robinson. Topping the list are Rick Bowness, Lindy Ruff, Joel Quenneville, Charlie Huddy and Doug Jarvis.

Muller says it takes a couple key attributes to survive four decades in the NHL.

“If you want to be in the game for that long, one, you have to love it, and two you have to be able to adapt and change, move with the times.”

After leaving the game, Kirk says he has no regrets and it feels like it was the right time to retire.

“I always gave it my all as a player and as a coach, and I am pretty comfortable with where I am at right now. If I do end up back in the game someday in some capacity, it means I am all in again.”

Muller says coaching is much more involved and time-consuming than playing.

“When I had friends visit they certainly noticed it, I was not around nearly as much as I was when I was playing.”

“With today’s young players it’s all about relationships, building trust. Players demand a lot more time from coaches than players from my generation did. When I played most of it got taken care of by teammates in the room. Now it’s a lot of one-on-one video coaching and it’s why you need bigger coaching staffs.”  

A Kingston Prodigy

Raised on Kingston’s Barbara Avenue, one of six kids to parents Ed and Annette Muller, Kirk was a phenom from an early age, scoring goals in bunches in Kingston Minor Hockey. At the age of 14, Kirk was playing for the Junior B Kingston Voyageurs. That same season he made his OHL debut with the hometown Kingston Canadians.

Kirk played a full season with the Canadians as a 15-year-old, and then went to Guelph as the first overall pick in the 1982 OHL Entry Draft.

As a sixteen-year-old in 1982-83, Muller had a remarkable season, scoring 52 goals and 112 points for a Guelph team that finished dead last and won just seven games.

At the OHL Awards luncheon Muller received the OHL’s Most Gentlemanly Player award. While being introduced by emcee Dave Quinn, the voice of the Windsor Spitfires, Quinn joked, “We want to show you the Guelph Platers highlight reel from last season, it’s a photo of Kirk Muller at the draft table.”

In his second year in Guelph, Kirk played for Team Canada at the 1984 World Juniors in Sweden and when he got back home he received a call from Dave King, the coach of Canada’s National team. An invitation to play in an exhibition series against the U.S. as a tuneup for the Olympics.  

Muller made the Canadian team and went to the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Only 17, Kirk was the youngest player to represent Canada in Olympic hockey.

“The Olympics weren’t even on my radar at the start of the season, I played six games in eight or nine days between Guelph and the games against the Americans. The next thing I am in Sarajevo for the opening ceremonies at the Olympics. The applause we received was bigger than for any other visiting country and it just made me so proud to be Canadian.”

A few months later at the 1984 NHL Entry Draft in Montreal, New Jersey drafted Kirk second overall, behind Mario Lemieux who went first overall to Pittsburgh.

On the first day of training camp with New Jersey, Kirk threw up in Ron Low’s goal crease. Nerves got to him that day, “boy did I hear about it from my teammates,” Muller told Whig Standard reporter Patrick Kennedy.

Kirk settled in quickly and became a leader on a young developing team. As a rookie he represented New Jersey at the all-star game (one of six all-star appearances).

Three years later, the 21-year-old Muller was named captain of the Devils prior to the 1987-88 season. That year Muller had 37 goals and 94 points to lead New Jersey to its first-ever playoff appearance. 

Kirk Is Work

After seven outstanding years in New Jersey, Muller’s agent Gus Badali got into a contract dispute with the Devils.

Instead of giving Kirk a well-deserved raise on a new deal, GM Lou Lamoriello would not budge and in 1991 traded Muller to Montreal in a blockbuster deal for two-time 50-goal scorer Stephane Richer.

It was the best thing that could have happened to Kirk.

With his strong work ethic and ability to score big goals, he quickly became a fan favourite in Montreal. The legendary Montreal sportswriter, Red Fisher, tagged him “Kirk is Work” in his popular Montreal Gazette game recaps.

In 1992-93 Muller was second in team scoring with 94 points and the Canadiens went on a tremendous run in the playoffs. Backed by the goaltending of Conn Smythe Trophy winner Patrick Roy, Montreal won a remarkable ten straight overtime games. Muller had two of those overtime winners. 

The Stanley Cup final pitted Wayne Gretzky and the L.A. Kings against Montreal. In Game Five on home ice at the Montreal Forum with Kirk’s family looking on, Muller scored the biggest goal of his career – to win the Stanley Cup.

“You could not have scripted it any better. Winning the Cup on home ice, at the Forum, in front of my family. It was just a very special moment in my career.”

Today Muller is content to retire as a Stanley Cup champion. “I tell Stacey if I didn’t have that ring, I would likely still be coaching, trying to chase a Stanley Cup.”  

During the off season in 1994, Montreal traded Guy Carbonneau to St. Louis, and Muller was named the 20th captain in team history. There was a lockout to begin the 1994-95 season, and the NHL played an abbreviated 48- game schedule that started in January.

Shockingly, Montreal GM Serge Savard traded Muller to the Islanders in early April. 

Muller was crushed by the trade and things did not work out on Long Island. Traded to Toronto in January 1996, Kirk joined fellow Kingstonian Doug Gilmour. Just over a year later Toronto moved both players, Kirk was sent to Florida and Gilmour wound up in New Jersey. 

After a couple of years in Florida, Muller was not offered a new contract and became a free agent. Former Montreal great Bob Gainey was the GM in Dallas at the time and he signed Muller just before Christmas in 1999.

It rejuvenated Muller’s career, Kirk got a shot at another Cup that season, his veteran presence helped the Stars make it to the Stanley Cup finals, losing to New Jersey in 2000.

In September 2003 , at age 37 and after 19 NHL seasons, Kirk announced his retirement at the International Hockey Hall of Fame, in front of family, friends and local media.

A captain of two NHL teams with more than 1,300 games played, a Stanley Cup champion with a Cup-winning goal and a former Olympian, Muller had a very impressive career.

In 2007 Kirk was inducted into the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame.

Kirk finished his NHL career with 357 career goals and 959 points, while playing a strong 200-foot game.

Kirk’s brother, Todd, spoke at the retirement announcement, “I’ve always heard the same thing from every team Kirk played on,” his teammates would all say, “your brother is the nicest guy.”

“Kirk is a better guy than he was a player, and he was a great player.”

Don Cherry often repeated the same sentiment. “Kirk is one of the only guys who never changed a bit after making the NHL.”

I asked Kirk about those accolades this week, “if you knew my parents, Ed and Annette, I don’t think I had much choice.”

A couple of months after Kirk retired in 2003 there was a large celebration at the Ambassador Hotel for Kirk and Doug Gilmour, two of Kingston’s favourite sons (Gilmour retired five days after Kirk).

Don Cherry was there of course, he had long counted Kirk & Dougie as two of his favourite players and always went out of his way to sing their praises on Hockey Night in Canada.

From Player To Coach

After some time away from the game, in 2005 Muller accepted an offer from Queen’s Athletic Director John McFarlane to become the new head coach of the Gaels. Who knew a first-year university coaching job would lead to a 20-year NHL coaching career.

After that initial season at Queen’s former teammate Guy Carbonneau approached Muller to join him in Montreal as an assistant coach.

It was the beginning of a lengthy NHL coaching career that included a head coaching job in Carolina, two separate coaching stints in Montreal and stops in St. Louis, Calgary and Washington.

After a remarkable 39-year NHL career, Kirk has returned home. Planting roots and excited for what comes next. 

Mark Potter is longtime Kingston broadcaster and honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame. Mark first interviewed Kirk 45 years ago, when he was a 15 year old playing for the OHL’s Kingson Canadians.