“Peter Mueller has expressed several times that he is not satisfied with his work in Vítkovice and is not satisfied with life in Ostrava either. He said he wanted to leave the team, that’s why we agreed on ending mutual cooperation,” says HC Vítkovice Rider’s sports director Roman Šimíček.
According to captain Dominik Lakatoš, the expected leader’s departure surprised the cabin. “Peter Mueller announced to everyone in the cabin that he no longer wants to continue in Vítkovice and that he wants to be traded somewhere else. It shocked us, but if he feels that way, it’s his choice,” said Lakatoš.
⚠️ PETER MUELLER ENDS IN VÍTKOVICE
The American attacker will no longer work in HC VÍTKOVICE RIDERA after he himself expressed in front of the booth that he does not want a successor in Vítkovice.
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— HC VÍTKOVICE RIDER (@hcvitkovice) November 29, 2023
“We are now in a situation where we have to have players in the cabin who want to fight for Vítkovice, who want to pull together and give their best on the ice so that we can finally get up. If someone doesn’t want to be here and doesn’t want to work as a team, they simply don’t have a place here,” emphasized the captain of the Vítkovice team.
The excellent scorer Mueller transferred to Vítkovice from Kometa Brno in the summer of 2022. Last season he was one of the most productive players and also one of the best scorers. The winning goal in the sixth game against Kometa Brno decided Vítkovic’s progress to the semi-finals of the playoffs.
In the current year, he played 17 games, in which he scored 13 points for 6 goals and 7 assists. He is third in Canadian team scoring behind Dominik Lakatoš and defenseman Stuart Percy. The team won four games with him in the lineup. Mueller scored a goal in only three extra-league duels of the season. He scored a hat-trick in the second game of the year on the ice of Mladá Boleslav (4:2), he had to wait six league games for the next goal and he got it in the home victory (5:2) over Liberec. The last time he scored twice was against Třinec (3:6).
He is currently injured, his groin is bothering him and he cannot play. He last played for Vítkovice in Olomouc (2:3 after extra time). He has been out of the lineup since then. “I think it is clear that, even with regard to the current unfavorable situation, we must only have players in the team who want to play for Vítkovice and are capable and, above all, willing to fight for them. If someone isn’t capable of that, if they don’t want to play for Vítkovice, for the team, they have no business in the cabin,” says Šimíček, who, together with the coaches and management, is looking for a way out of the crisis.
For the second time in the season, the club’s management is intensively dealing with the current unfavorable situation and bad results, including internal interviews with the players. “We are trying to find a way out of the crisis. I can assure everyone that no one at the club is indifferent to the situation we are in now. We are all aware that it is necessary to get out of the crisis as quickly as possible, to do everything for it. There is no other way,” says Šimíček.
At the same time, he says that he will not comment further on the proceedings. “I believe everyone understands that what is said behind closed doors is what is said behind closed doors.”
Where will Mueller’s next steps lead?
The question remains where Mueller’s next steps will lead now. A return to Kometa would be offered, where he spent four seasons before moving to Vítkovice and in the last one (2020/21) he became the most productive player in the entire extra league.
According to information from Sport.cz, Mueller has indeed negotiated with the Brno club in the last few days, but everything is struggling with finances. It’s no secret that the American is one of the most expensive players in the extra league, in Vítkovice there was talk of a basic salary of 600,000 a month. Kometa owner Libor Zábranský cannot and does not want to offer such an amount.
Rumors then began to spread on social networks that Mueller should head to Hradec Králové. “At this moment, we have not discussed anything like that and we are not even negotiating,” the general manager of hockey Mountfield Aleš Kmoníček answered clearly for Sport.cz.
2023-11-30 01:04:11
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