(team, Lemieux and product links go to sponsored
Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)
This will likely be the preface to all of this year's
Season Preview posts: Unlike in the distant past where I would post different texts on this collectibles blog and
my personal one, I've been using a new format for the past couple of years, where I'll copy the same text on each one. As a father of two young kids, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. This year again, the entire scope of the analysis will take place first and the featured player will have a direct or perhaps indirect connection to what's written, below.
Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start in a little over a week, several players haven't found a team yet, (at least) three star players have active trade requests, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much left to do.
Key exits:
xxx (RW),
xxx (D),
xxx (C),
xxx (D),
xxx (C),
xxx (D),
xxx (C),
xxx (LW),
xxx (G),
xxx (RW).
Key arrivals:
xxx (RW),
xxx (D),
xxx (C),
xxx (D),
xxx (LW),
xxx (C),
xxx (G),
xxx (F),
xxx (G),
xxx (D),
xxx (LW),
xxx (LW),
xxx (C).
Top prospects:
xxx (D, 19),
xxx (RW, 24),
xxx (LW, 18),
xxx (G, 19r),
xxx (RW, 22),
xxx (G, 21),
xxx (C, 23).
xxx
What makes their odds look good:
xxx
Question marks:
xxx
Outlook:
This team will battle for a wild card spot until the end on the basis of their talent level, but would require a miracle to make a deep playoff run the likes of which management expects (and top three stars want to bookend their careers with).
Prediction:
7th in the Metropolitan Division.
There is a common misconception about
John Cullen's time with the Penguins, that he owes his point production to
Mario Lemieux playing with him and feeding him easy points on a platter, but the truth is that Cullen was mostly active in
replacing Lemieux during his stint on long-term injured reserve. In his rookie season, Cullen posted 49 points in 79 games, but as Lemieux missed 21 games the following season with a back injury, Cullen took his place on the top line with
Kevin Stevens on his left and
Rob Brown or
Mark Recchi on his right, producing to the tune of 92 points in 72 games.
Most players on that squad, however, had terrible defensive numbers, with Hall of Famer
Paul Coffey showing the worst plus/minus at -25 and Lemieux trailing him at -18 in 59 games (but 45 goals, 78 assists and 123 points as a counter-argument. Cullen himself was -13, tied with Stevens.
In 1990-91, with rookie
Jaromir Jagr in tow, the Pens started having Stanley Cup aspirations and knew they had to get better defensively, but also to add an edge to their game, and they did so by sending Cullen, powerpplay quarterback
Zarley Zalapski and hard-nosed grinder
Jeff Parker to the
Hartford Whalers for captain and unquestioned leader
Ron Francis, one of the game's dirtiest players ever in
Ulf Samuelsson, and
Grant Jennings, changing the entire makeup of the team. For his part, Cullen's 16 points (8 goals and 8 assists) in 13 games compensated for part of Francis' contribution, and his following season's 77 points (26 goals, 51 assists) in 77 games were not to shabby either, but in making that trade, the Whalers were hoping to bring their own team up to the level of the two best teams in the division, the
Boston Bruins and
Montréal Canadiens, which was decidedly not the case.
On November 24th, 1992, the Whalers decided to cut their losses and dealt an injured Cullen to the
Toronto Maple Leafs for a second-round pick, a month and a half into the season. He actually wore a neck brace/protector for much of his time with the Leafs, then went back to Pittsburgh for one year (37 points in 46 games playing behind Francis in the last season before the beginning of the Dead Puck Era).
With Lemieux eyeing a return for 1995-96, Francis still in town and the likes of
Petr Nedved and
Bryan Smolinki getting acquired via trade over the summer, Cullen's time with the Pens was coming to an end, and the
Tampa Bay Lightning came calling at the right moment to offer him the 2C job behind oft-forgotten point-per-game-producer
Brian Bradley. As Bradley was replaced by
Chris Gratton, Cullen kept producing, with seasons of 50 and 55 points in Tampa before terrible news broke...
After two months of coughing with what he thought was an intense flu or cold, his wife convinced him to reach out to team doctors, who found a black mass in his lungs: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. During treatment, while in-hospital, he even suffered cardiac arrest, but after an 18-month fight and rehabilitation, he attempted a comeback that lasted 4 NHL games with the Lightning and 6 games with the IHL's
Cleveland Lumberjacks, including a league-record seven-point game against the
Chicago Wolves (a 7-3 win). His comeback attempt won him the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for the 1998-99 season. It was around that time that the NHL initiated the
Hockey Fights Cancer program.
All this being said, this is how I remember him most, wearin g the Pens' black (away) uniform with the alternate captain's "A", as seen on card #232 from
Pro Set's
1990-91 Series 1 collection:
He was such an important player for the Pens that he seemingly also wore the captain's "C" on at least one occasion (which could have been during training camp), as seen on card #
