The Pittsburgh Penguins center situation is officially worse today than it was at the start of yesterday. Matt Cullen will be returning to play in his 20th season in the NHL. It will not be in Pittsburgh. Cullen signed a one-year deal with the Minnesota Wild yesterday afternoon.
Any criticism directed at the player or Jim Rutherford is unwarranted. This is a player who had to make a tough decision about playing another year and ultimately chose his home state and the ability to give his young children some stability moving forward.
Pittsburgh was great to Matt Cullen. Matt Cullen was great to Pittsburgh. Cullen came to Pittsburgh at a time where the bottom six forward depth on the team was objectively bad and compromised the team's ability to compete for a Stanley Cup. It was a great signing.
There is no doubt it was a tough decision to pass on a chance at a three-peat, but who could possibly not understand Cullen's decision.
Aside from the obvious family driven portion of his decision perhaps Cullen didn't feel his 40 year old body could carry Ryan Reaves for an entire season...
Cullen was a great fit with the Penguins because of his ability to contribute offensively despite being in a fourth line role. Possession wise his game slipped, but when your fourth line center is putting up second line scoring numbers it is easy to live with.
You aren't going to replace that offense with the scraps on the UFA market right now and that certainly won't be the case with Ryan Reaves taking up a right wing spot on the fourth line on a regular basis.
There was a bit of good news yesterday
This is an excellent thing to hear. The focus should be on the player's ability to contribute at 5v5 and if you can find somebody who is really good at 5v5, but maybe doesn't kill penalties you should always lean on the 5v5 talent. Chris Kunitz didn't kill penalties his entire Penguins tenure until the very end. He was more than functional in that role. Penalty killing ability should be a nice bonus after looking at many other variables first. This keeps the door open for the likes of Matt Duchene and Tyler Bozak.
Jim Rutherford has made no bones about it. He will be patient when finding his 3rd line center. To the point where he is OK starting the season with the status quo
If that is the case then they won't have much of a choice but to consider moving somebody like Jake Guentzel or Scott Wilson to the center position. I don't believe it is the team's first choice to take Guentzel out of his top six winger role, but something has to give if this is the roster heading into the season. Especially so without Matt Cullen.
Thanks for reading!
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