M AT T C U L L E N
1500
CAREER NHL GAMES PLAYED
On Tuesday, March 5, 2019 forward Matt Cullen is set to play in his 1,500th career National Hockey League game against the Florida Panthers at PPG Paints Arena.
A WELL TRAVELED MAN
21 NHL Seasons | 8 NHL Teams Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 1997-2003 427 Games Played 65G-135A-200PTS
Florida Panthers 2002-04 86 Games Played 12G-19A-31PTS
Carolina Hurricanes 2005-06; 2007-10 266 Games Played 72G-109A-181PTS
New York Rangers 2006-07 80 Games Played 16G-25A-41PTS
Ottawa Senators 2009-10 21 Games Played 4G-4A-8PTS
Minnesota Wild 2010-13; 2017-18 272 Games Played 44G-79A-123PTS
Nashville Predators 2013-15 139 Games Played 17G-47A-64PTS
Pittsburgh Penguins 2015-17; 2018-19 209 Games Played 34G-46A-80PTS
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
October 28, 1997 2-2 Tie First NHL Game @Maple Leaf Gardens
November 2, 1997 4-3 Loss First NHL Point/Assist Teemu Selanne Goal
January 21, 1998 8-3 Win First NHL Goal Assisted by Jeff Nielsen & Ruslan Salei
CLIMBING THE RANKS MOST GAMES PLAYED BY AN AMERICAN-BORN PLAYER: NAME
GAMES PLAYED
ALL-TIME NHL GAMES PLAYED LIST: NAME
GAMES PLAYED
1. Chris Chelios
1651
16. Shane Doan
1540
2. MATT CULLEN
1500
17. Johnny Bucyk
1540
3. Mike Modano
1499
18. Brendan Shanahan
1524
4. Phil Housley
1495
19. Steve Yzerman
1514
5. Jeremy Roenick
1363
20. MATT CULLEN
1500
Matt Cullen joins Chris Chelios as the only American-born players to play 1,500 NHL games. Cullen also cracks the top-20 on the NHL’s overall all-time games played list.
M AT T C U L L E N
1500
CAREER NHL GAMES PLAYED
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE As of March 4, a total of 7,051 skaters, including Matt Cullen, had suited up for at least one NHL game since the league formed in 1917. Since Cullen’s NHL debut on October 28, 1997, a total of 3,461 skaters have played at least one game, not including him. That means that Cullen’s NHL career has overlapped 49.1% of all skaters to ever play an NHL game. Since Cullen’s debut, excluding him, a total of 2,683 players have made their NHL debut.
THINGS CHANGE When Cullen made his NHL debut in 1997-98: The NHL had 26 teams: No Nashville, Columbus, Minnesota, Atlanta/Winnipeg or Vegas. Cullen went on to play for Nashville and Minnesota. The Hurricanes were in their first year in Carolina after moving from Hartford. Eight years later Cullen helped them to the Stanley Cup in 2006. Detroit won the Stanley Cup for the second-straight season. Dominik Hasek won the Hart Trophy and Jaromir Jagr won the Art Ross Trophy.
BENCH BOSSES Cullen’s coaches throughout 1500 games: Pierre Page Craig Hartsburg Bryan Murray Mike Babcock
Mike Keenan Rick Dudley John Torchetti
Peter Laviolette Paul Maurice
Tom Renney
Cory Clouston
Todd Richards Mike Yeo Bruce Boudreau
Barry Trotz Peter Laviolette
Mike Johnston Mike Sullivan
Seven of Cullen’s head coaches rank in the top-25 on the NHL’s all-time wins list (bolded).
SOME OF THE MANY Noteable teammates of Cullen: Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne, Adam Oates, Dan Bylsma, Petr Sykora
Valeri Bure, Olli Jokinen, Roberto Luongo, Stephane Matteau
Eric Staal, Justin Williams, Mark Recchi, Ray Whitney
Jaromir Jagr, Henrik Lundqvist, Brendan Shanahan, Martin Straka
Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher, Jason Spezza, Alex Kovalev
Brent Burns, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter
Patric Hornqvist, Seth Jones, James Neal, Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Phil Kessel, Marc-Andre Fleury, Matt Murray
Cullen has also played with current NHL head coaches Travis Green (ANA), Jaroslav Bednar (FLA) and Rod Brind’Amour (CAR).
TWO GENERATIONS WORTH Cullen played with/against two father-son duos: Cullen played with Ted Donato on the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1999-2000 and later played against his son Ryan Donato of the Minnesota Wild.
Cullen played with Michal Nylander on the New York Rangers in 2006-07 and recently played against William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
M AT T C U L L E N
1500
CAREER NHL GAMES PLAYED
A look at where the players and coaches in tonight’s game were on October 28, 1997... PENGUINS PLAYERS Player
Position
1 Casey DeSmith 2 Chad Ruhwedel 3 Olli Maatta 4 Justin Schultz 5 Zach Trotman 8 Brian Dumoulin 10 Garrett Wilson 12 Dominik Simon 17 Bryan Rust 19 Jared McCann 27 Nick Bjugstad 28 Marcus Pettersson 30 Matt Murray 44 Erik Gudbranson 46 Zach Aston-Reese 50 Juuso Riikola 53 Teddy Blueger 58 Kris Letang 59 Jake Guentzel 71 Evgeni Malkin 72 Patric Hornqvist 73 Jack Johnson 81 Phil Kessel 87 Sidney Crosby
G D D D D D F F F F F D G D F D F D F F F D F F
Age: Years Months Days 6 7 3 7 7 6 6 3 5 1 5 1 3 5 3 3 3 10 3 11 10 10 10 10
2 5 2 3 2 1 7 2 5 4 3 5 5 9 2 11 2 6 0 2 9 9 0 2
16 22 7 23 3 23 13 21 18 29 12 21 4 22 19 20 14 5 23 29 28 16 27 22
Team Simsbury Youth Hockey San Diego Stars --West Side Grizzlies Indie South Stars Biddeford Youth Hockey Association Elmvale Coyotes --Learn to Play --Flyers Mite Team ----Timbits ------Grands ducs de la Jaimeraie Atom AA --Magnitogorsk Solna Lakeland Hawks Madison Capitols Cole Harbour Wings
PENGUINS COACHES & GM JIM RUTHERFORD General Manager Jim Rutherford
Head Coach Mike Sullivan
Assistant Coach Mark Recchi
Assistant Coach Sergei Gonchar
Jim Rutherford has won three Stanley Cups with Matt Cullen. On this day he was in his fourth season as GM of the Carolina Hurricanes franchise. It was the Hurricanes’ first year in Carolina following their move from Hartford.
Skating for the Boston Bruins, he was 385 games into his 709-game career.
Skating for the Montreal Canadiens, he was 639 games into his 1652game career.
Skating for the Washington Capitals, he was 170 games into his 1301-game career.
Assistant Coach Jacques Martin
Goaltending Coach Mike Buckley
Video Coach Andy Saucier
Skills Development Coach Ty Hennes
Jacques Martin was in his second full season as the head coach of the Ottawa Senators.
Mike Buckley was a 20-year old playing college hockey at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
11-year old Andy Saucier was skating for Fleetbank in Maine.
Ty Hennes was the captain at Deerfield Academy Prep School.
YOUNGEST FLORIDA PLAYERS Player 5 Aaron Ekblad 8 Jayce Hawryluk 33 Sam Montembeault 62 Denis Malgin 95 Henrik Borgstrom
Position D F G F F
Age: Years Months Days 1 1 0 0 0
8 9 11 9 2
22 28 29 11 23