{"id":12140,"date":"2017-08-16T14:44:37","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T18:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=12140"},"modified":"2017-08-16T14:44:37","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T18:44:37","slug":"matt-cullen-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/08\/16\/matt-cullen-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Cullen Signs with the Minnesota Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion <strong>Matt Cullen<\/strong> has signed with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/wild\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Minnesota Wild<\/a>. At 40 years old, Cullen takes a one-year deal with performance bonuses. Michael Russo was first with the news.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sources say Matt Cullen has signed a one-year contract with performance bonuses with the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/mnwild?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#mnwild<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BYvPAUVwXV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/BYvPAUVwXV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RussoHockey\/status\/897888202832392193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Matt Cullen Signs with the<\/h3>\n<p>Cullen was drafted way back in the second round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/ducks\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anaheim Mighty Ducks<\/a>. He established himself as a consistent 40 point scorer in California before heading off to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/panthers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Florida Panthers<\/a> in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>After the 2005 lockout, Cullen signed with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/hurricanes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a>, winning his first Stanley Cup. That off-season, he signed a four-year contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/rangers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Rangers<\/a>. Cullen only lasted one year in the Big Apple, however, being shipped back to Raleigh to free up cap space. 2007-08, his first year back with the Hurricanes, was the most productive of his career. In 59 games, Cullen scored 49 points.<\/p>\n<p>Stops in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/senators\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ottawa<\/a>, Minnesota, and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/predators\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nashville<\/a> followed before landing in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/penguins\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pittsburgh<\/a> during the 2015 off-season. Cullen, rejuvenated\u00a0on a contending team, recorded 32 points in 82 games, his first full season since 2001. Winning the Stanley Cup, he re-signed with the Penguins on a one-year, $1 million contract.<\/p>\n<p>This past season, Cullen played 72 games in a fourth line center role. He managed to produce at a better rate than the year prior, tallying 31 points. Of course, the Penguins repeated as Cup champions, putting Cullen&#8217;s career total at three (2006, 2016, 2017).<\/p>\n<p>Matt Cullen is obviously a short term player. He turns 41 in December, making him the third-oldest player in the league, only behind <strong>Jaromir Jagr<\/strong> and <strong>Shane Doan<\/strong>, should they return. Although his age suggests otherwise, Cullen is still a valuable member of the lineup. His experience and leadership are obvious, but he can still play. He has recorded back-to-back 31 and 32 point seasons on the Penguins. Cullen is still good in the faceoff dot, winning 51.2% of draws in 2016-17.<\/p>\n<p>Cullen is a great depth add for the Wild. A cheap, short term fourth line center, Cullen will help in the pursuit of a Stanley Cup, which would be the fourth of his career.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.ca\/detail\/676876410\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/676876410?et=GaGR0stJQKltZ64F4HhRkQ&amp;tld=ca&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=dMQ8z1KZKpjfaJ0M9toFRnwCePGlF190Hw3C6Y1OX3U=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>40-year-old Matt Cullen has signed with the <TEAM> on a <INSERT> year, <INSERT> million contract. Cullen has won back-to-back Cups with the Penguins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1858,"featured_media":12145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,30],"tags":[37,1761,38,662],"class_list":["post-12140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wild","tag-hockey","tag-matt-cullen","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}