Pittsburgh will pay their yearly visit to Minnesota tonight. They will also be visiting their former fourth line centers home state. Matt Cullen had a very difficult decision this past offseason. Go for the three-peat with the Penguins or close out his very successful NHL career in his homestate close to familly. He chose the latter and who could blame him?
Now that Riley Sheahan has been acquired it will be Gregg McKegg's job to try and replace Matt Cullen on the fourth line. Cullen was showing signs of slowing down as a possession player but he will still producing offense at close to a top six level during 5v5 action last year.
How are things looking so far for Cullen? Not great if I'm being honest. In eight games his shot attempts percentage is 37.09%. Yikes, even Zach Sill would put up more than that. It is only eight games, but it has been trending down as mentioned above. His offense? Not good yet either. He doesn't have a single point yet at 5v5. HIs lone point came on the power play.
Gregg McKegg is a 50.49% possesson player so far this year and has a 1.09 5v5 points per 60, which is low, but better than Cullen's zero. McKegg's xGF% is 53.98 and Cullen's has been 43.73.
Matt Cullen was the right player at the right time at the right price point for the Penguins. Their forward depth was rubbish in the years leading up to the Cullen signing. There is no doubt that he was a positive contributor to two consecutive Stanley Cup championships. However, losing him for the 2017-18 season probably won't be a loss at all for the Penguins. It might actually be addition by subtraction if these early season numbers hold true for Culllen.
Regardless of how the season has gone I fully suspect that Cullen will bring the best of what he has in tonight's matchup against his former teammates.
Jake Guentzel will also be playing in his home state and I'd say Guentzel will go out and have a good game, but that's pretty much how his games go all the time.
Thanks for reading!