Contextualizing Thomas Muller signing with the Vancouver Whitecaps in hockey terms

In what is objectively the biggest sports news in the history of the city of Vancouver, Thomas Muller officially put pen to paper in signing for the Vancouver Whitecaps. His signing is the culmination of weeks of speculations that the German international, and one of the best midfielders of all time, will move across the pond and settle in Canada for the upcoming season and potentially beyond.

This is massive news for Canadian soccer, and in a country and city that has been dominated by hockey, Muller’s signing is a sign of a turning point towards the global game. Despite this, for many hockey fans, Muller’s signing comes as yet another European soccer player coming to ply his trade in Canada. Let’s break down what this signing would be in hockey terms.

Who is Thomas Muller

The list of accolades behind Thomas Muller is enormous. The 35-year-old has been effectively a one-club man at this point, having joined Bayern Munich at the age of ten. Over his career with the team, which began in the 2008–09 season, he recorded a record 756 appearances, winning 362 of them. He is the only player to have won more than 300 games with the same team.

During his career, Bayern won the Bundesliga title (Germany’s top flight soccer league) 13 times, and Muller is the only outfield player to have been on a winning team that many times. Add in 20 more club trophies including two Champions Leagues makes him the joint-most decorated German footballer of all time.

Individually, he sits third all-time in club history for goals, leads Bayern in all-time assists, and is one of just three players to have 100 goals and 100 assists in the Bundesliga.

Muller is decorated as well at the international level, having won the World Cup with Germany in 2014 as well as the Golden Boot as the top player at the 2010 World Cup. He was called up to the German National Team 131 times in his career, recording 45 goals.

Not an orthodox player by position, Muller has oscillated between being a midfielder and an attacker over his career. Known for his positioning and intelligence, Muller has found a way to be at the right place at the right time to put the ball in the net.

While he won’t go down as the greatest player of all time, that award being held by Lionel Messi, Muller will go down as a top-five player at his position all time, arguably the greatest players in his club’s history, and one of the greatest players his country has ever produced.

Explaining Thomas Muller’s signing with the Vancouver Whitecaps in hockey terms

Put in hockey terms, the closest positional equivalent to Muller would be a centreman. Known for his goalscoring and positioning, but also ability to play through the middle, Muller would be most comparable to a high-scoring centreman.

Not the biggest player on the ice but one who has a nose for the net and the intelligence to read the game at a very high level, Muller is the type of player that any team would give their left arm to have. A leader on and off the pitch, Muller would undoubtedly be a captain at whichever team he was on.

You’re looking at a top-50 player of all time in Muller, and a player who was able to shine both on the scoresheet and off it. Perhaps the closest comparable would be Steve Yzerman. Like Muller, Yzerman was a one-club man, and arguably one of the greatest players in his team’s history.

Muller and Yzerman were both right shot players, and both won one championship for their country in their eras. Where Muller won two Champions League Trophies, Yzerman won three Stanley Cups for the Red Wings. While adjusting for scoring between football and hockey is hard, Yzerman was also known for his playmaking, finishing his career with over 1000 assists to go along with his 692 career goals in 1514 games.

Using Yzerman as our Muller equivalent, imagine if at the end of his career, after winning basically everything for his team, Yzerman were to leave the NHL and go join another league.

The Bundesliga is one of the top five leagues in the world, while MLS ranks 12th in the latest analysis by Opta. There is not as rigid an analysis of the top hockey leagues in the world, but the IIHF ranks country’s national team programs based on international performance, ranking Canada first, followed by Finland, then a tie for third with Czechia, Switzerland, and the United States.

The 12th ranked country in this analysis is Norway, which while not a perfect analysis, gives a pretty good indication of how large of a drop-off it is between the Bundesliga and MLS.

Muller joins the Vancouver Whitecaps, who currently sit second in the Western Conference with 13 wins, five losses and six draws through 24 games. League-wide, their 45 points would put them fifth in points out of the 30 total teams.

The Norwegian EliteHockey Ligaen (EHL) is comprised of 10 teams, with the bottom two playing a relegation battle with the top two teams in the First Division. Proportionally, Vancouver would sit second in the league. Based on last year’s standards, the second placed team in the EHL was Frisk Asker, who went 29–8–6 on route to a semi-final loss. Asker is just outside of Oslo, the capital of Norway, near the city of Drammen.

Last year, the team’s leading scorer was 33-year-old Michael Haga, who had 61 points in 45 games. He was never drafted and never played outside of Europe. The team also featured former Nashville Predators draft pick Felix Girard, who played in the AHL but did not see the NHL.

While the Whitecaps have a more impressive roster, it’s a major adjustment to go from playing alongside one of the best right backs in the world in Canadian Alphonso Davies and one of the greatest all time goalies in Manuel Neuer to playing with leading scorer Brian White and Canadian International Sam Adekugbe, neither of whom played top-five football in their careers.

How big of a deal is the Thomas Muller signing

The magnitude of this signing cannot be overstated. It’s the equivalent of a 35-year-old Steve Yzerman jumping from the Detroit Red Wings, one of the winningest franchises in his era, to Frisk Asker of the Norwegian EHL. Not only would it be a major change for the player, but it would be the biggest signing in Frisk Asker’s entire history, and probably the biggest thing to happen in Asker in their sports history.

While it’s hard to measure individual impact in a team game, Muller joining the Whitecaps is a massive step up for the team and should make them one of the most competitive teams in the league this year. For Vancouver sports fans, getting a chance to see a legend of the game play in the city for the balance of the season is an incredible treat. He truly is one of the greatest players of all time.