This time, it’s Aaron Ward breaking the news, as the Nashville Predators followed up the signing of Viktor Stalberg by adding a veteran center to the mix in Matt Cullen:
Matt Cullen agrees to terms with the Nashville Predators on a 2 years /7M total. #TSN
— Aaron Ward (@aaronward_nhl) July 5, 2013
With 15 NHL seasons under his belt, Cullen has played 1,073 regular season games with 202 goals and 360 assists (never hitting 50 points in a season). He has a reputation for speed and an outstanding work ethic, but isn’t the sort of top-line center that many Predators fans were hoping the team would acquire. Cullen won the Stanley Cup with Carolina in 2006, and Nashville will become his 8th NHL team.
| Season | GP | TOI/60 | Pts/60 | Corsi Rel | On-Ice Sht % | On-Ice Sv% | PDO | Pen Take | Pen Drawn | OZ Strt% | Shots/60 |
| 2013 | 42 | 12.23 | 2.69 | -3.6 | 13.5 | 927 | 1061 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 42.4 | 7.13 |
| 2012 | 73 | 13.61 | 1.51 | +11.2 | 7.6 | 906 | 982 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 44.2 | 7.43 |
| 2011 | 78 | 12.36 | 0.87 | -5.6 | 7.9 | 919 | 998 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 40.8 | 5.66 |
| 2010 | 81 | 12.46 | 1.90 | +1.8 | 9.2 | 893 | 985 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 50.2 | 6.90 |
| 2009 | 69 | 12.63 | 1.93 | -6.0 | 8.0 | 929 | 1009 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 52.0 | 6.54 |
| 2008 | 59 | 10.84 | 2.35 | -5.9 | 9.8 | 920 | 1018 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 51.4 | 6.47 |
The number that should concern Predators fans is that On-Ice Shooting & from last season, 13.5 is a very high number which is very likely to drop back below 10% next season. Basically that means you can wipe about a quarter of his 5-on-5 point production off the board before projecting what he’s likely to do in Nashville. In short, the bounces went his way offensively this year in a way which we should not expect to repeat.
As for the Corsi-related stuff? I’m not impressed with the track record here, to say the least.
The interesting question here is how this affects Nashville’s depth chart. Will they truly run with Mike Fisher, David Legwand, Cullen & Paul Gaustad, or might there be a subsequent move coming?