Confirmed Signing with Link: [PIT] Penguins re-sign Matt Cullen to 1 year deal

[Flames Fanatic]

There is corroboration of this from Mark Parrish, who does local radio in the Twin Cities now and is one of Cullen's best friends from their days back at SCSU.

 

[Shrimper]

Guess they were told Vesey isn't signing with them so they went ahead and resigned Cullen.

We still have cap space to sign Vesey.

 

[clefty]

What did you expect him to say? "Yeah I wanted to go home to MN but they didn't offer me a deal, so I figured I should go with my 2nd choice. Really glad to be here guys..."

Not even saying the Pens were really a 2nd choice, but if they were he's never going to admit that.

He doesn't have to say anything.

Russo is pretty clear when he's speculating or when he's reporting fact. And he's been saying in a very matter of fact manner, that literally all Minnesota had to do is make the offer and it would be done in 10 minutes. There is corroboration of this from Mark Parrish, who does local radio in the Twin Cities now and is one of Cullen's best friends from their days back at SCSU.

Russo has also clear, that if Pitt made an offer, Cullen would probably stop waiting for Fletcher, and that Cullen has had 3 offers on the table from other teams besides MN and Pittsburgh for months, waiting for one of MN/Pitt to step up.

Pittsburgh did it first, and got the deal done. Good on them. No idea why Fletcher wouldn't pull the trigger on such an obvious move.

I don't know what to tell you, but nobody can be right all the time. Especially in the media. I just don't see the upshot of telling people your intentions privately so they can broadcast it publicly.

Now, maybe that was their read on Cullen's situation but again, not necessarily on the money.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

We still have cap space to sign Vesey.

Not just the space but a strong need for a LW whose name is not Kunitz to play with Malkin.

The signing had zero impact on the Vesey pursuit as GMJR said.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

As a Flyers fan I was hoping Cullen would have either signed with Minnesota or just retired.

Now that Cullen's coming back for another season, that means Pittsburgh has all 12 starting forwards, 7 of the 8 defensemen and 2 of the 3 goalies from their playoff roster last season.
Pittsburgh is pretty much icing the same roster this season that they had last season, with the exception of Ben Lovejoy, Jeff Zatkoff, Beau Bennett and (Pascal Dupuis on LTIRetired)

It's very hard to say this as a Flyers fan but Pittsburgh has to be a big favorite to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions this season, but I sure hope I'm wrong though, seeing as how hard it's going to be to match up to the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

 

[Bookman]

As an example, and the stat guy I was referring to looked at one game in the cup finals which was a microcosm of what Cullen brought to the table and how much the Pens relied on him and his line in that shut down role with Defensive Zone responsibilities:





The goals were simply gravy. That he scored at all with those heavy defensive responsibilities is amazing.

Excellent post.

 

[Finnish your Czech]

Might have trouble following up a good 106 game season at age 40, but I'm rooting for him.

 

[Ugene Magic]

I'm not expecting miracles, but I want one in a repeat.

Always like MC.

Apparently, so does JR.

Couldn't be more happy. Even if they don't win another he gets to watch the colors go up, and he gets to parlay the chance at it.

 

[Syrinx]

Is Cullen the "best" average player ever?

If that makes sense.

Every cup winning team has their Maltbys and Drapers that hold things together a rung below the superstars. Matt Cullen was that for the Pens last year. Great signing!