With their fourth-round pick of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, the Vancouver Canucks selected Ty Mueller out of the University of Nebraska-Omaha with the 105th overall pick.
During that draft season, Mueller racked up 12 goals and 13 assists for 25 points through 34 games. He followed that up with a slightly better draft plus-one season, scoring 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points through 40 games.
Then, Mueller decided to forgo his final year at the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) and turn pro.
It’s not always easy to turn pro as a 20-year-old, let alone get slotted into the AHL right away. It was a slow start for Mueller, not picking up his first professional point until his fifth game.
While on one leg and with a San Diego Gulls defender draping all over him, Mueller makes a quick back pass to Friedman, who buries it past the goaltender to give Mueller his first professional point.
It wasn’t until six games later that Mueller finally lit the lamp for the first time with Abbotsford after deflecting a John Stevens point shot.
And this is when everything started to click for Mueller in the pro ranks.
In a game against the Henderson Silver Kings, Mueller recorded his first multi-point game in the professional leagues. Following that,  Mueller would go on a streak, scoring 18 points in his next 21 games.
After this impressive run, Mueller was selected to represent the Abbotsford Canucks at the AHL All-Star game, replacing defenceman Elias Pettersson, who was enjoying time in the NHL.
“It was a super cool experience,” Mueller said about his All-Star experience. “[It was] A big honour being able to go down there and put a name to some of the faces you play against every night was pretty cool. Just to see how high the skill is in this league and what guys can do.”
While the point totals are impressive for the Edmonton, Alberta native, that’s not all he prides his game on. Mueller has spent the majority of this season as a Swiss Army knife for Abbotsford. He’s comfortable playing up and down the lineup and in all facets of the game. From the first line to the fourth line, power play, to the penalty kill, Mueller wants to make his two-way presence felt wherever he can.
“I just think it’s just as important to be able to defend as it is to be able to create chances,” Mueller said. “Obviously, you win hockey games by scoring goals, but it sure helps if you can keep the other team from scoring some too.”
Mueller has lived up to that defensive game in his first year with Abbotsford. He currently sits tied for eighth on the team in plus/minus rating – sitting at a plus-four rating – indicating that while he’s having offensive success, he isn’t willing to risk the defensive side of his game to pad the stat sheet.
In the AHL All-Star game, he turned this defence into offence by stripping the puck in his defensive zone and shifting the play up ice, which led to a breakaway goal for the Pacific division squad:
With all the turnover in Abbotsford throughout the year, he’s spent the season playing with numerous linemates. But being the versatile player Mueller is, he can play anywhere in the Abbotsford lineup. He’s found a lot of his success centring Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimäki this season.
In Abbotsford’s most recent game on Wednesday night, head coach Manny Malhotra started the game with Aatu Räty centring Bains and Lekkerimäki. But in an effort to switch things up, Malhotra quickly elevated Mueller back to centring that line.
And that decision paid off on Wednesday night:
“Well, they’ve had success in the past together,” Malhotra explained. “Just the way the offence was going, there wasn’t a whole lot cooking. So just to change things up and give new life to the lines helped early on, the different combinations give us a little bit of a boost.”
Mueller touched on being that dependable, versatile, two-way player that his coach can lean on to throw out on the ice in any situation:
“I think just the way I try to play is be someone who he can trust and be able to play on both sides of the puck and be able to keep them from getting chances, and also generate chances.”
As an NHL fourth-round pick, Mueller has the chips stacked against him. In an article by Jacob Billington of thehockeywriters.com, he outlines the success rate for fourth-round picks to make it into the NHL.
Players selected in his round have just a 41.7% chance of even suiting up in one NHL game throughout their career. However, Mueller has made a strong push with Abbotsford this season to become one of those late-round success stories that can earn himself a picture in Abbotsford’s Highway One Wall.
While he’s happy with his success this season, he is self-motivated to continue improving as he develops in Abbotsford.
“It’s been good,” Mueller expressed about his rookie season in the professional ranks. “I mean, I always want to get better, and I always think I can do better, so I just need to keep pushing to do that.”
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