Montreal Canadiens: This Day In Habs History: Kirk Muller Named Captain
The Montreal Canadiens currently need to decide whether or not someone will wear the captain’s “C” on their jersey next season.
With Shea Weber out for the season with injuries, the team’s captain will not be available and the team is yet to announce whether someone else will replace Weber as the on-ice leader.
An announcement is not expected today, but if it were to happen, it would not be the first time the team has chosen a new captain on August 30.
It was on this day in 1994 that Kirk Muller was chosen as the team’s new captain. Muller was the 20th player in the history of the franchise to be named captain. He was picked to replace Guy Carbonneau who had been traded earlier in the month to the St. Louis Blues.
Muller’s time as the team’s captain was not long. Shortly after he was chosen, the NHL and the NHLPA would disagree on the collective bargaining agreement for the upcoming season and delay the beginning of the 1994-95 campaign. The season finally began in January with a 48 game schedule announced.
A native of Kingston, Ontario, Muller would not see the end of his first season with the Canadiens. After donning the “C” on his chest 33 times, he was traded along with Mathieu Schneider and Craig Darby to the New York Islanders for Pierre Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov.
Muller wasn’t at his best in that season, scoring eight goals and 19 points in those 33 games and the team really struggled on the ice, eventually finished the season well outside the playoffs with a 18-23-7 record.
Though his tenure as captain was short lived, Muller has had a long history with the Canadiens. He was initially acquired in 1991 for Stephane Richer. Muller led the team in scoring with 94 points in 1992-93 and played a huge role in them winning the Stanley Cup that season. He played a total of 267 games in parts of four seasons with the Habs, scoring 104 goals and 247 points.
He would later return to the organization as an assistant coach for the 2006-07 season. He stayed for five seasons before leaving to be a head coach in the AHL. Muller returned to the Canadiens once again in 2016 as associate coach and remained in that role until he was relived of his duties early last season.