With the signing of Matt Cullen, the Wild have finally, for the love of everything Holy, found a #2 center. His presence on the second line makes that grouping more dangerous, and takes pressure off of the top line to be the only scoring line. While I would love to see the lines get shuffled a bit, we will see how it all plays out. For now, let's meet the man, the myth, the legend, Matt Cullen.

Contract: 3 Years, $3.5 million per year. We also previewed Cullen during our Free Agent target series. Let's see how close we were:

Nathan: Pass

Buddha: 3 years, $3 million, max

JS: 3 years, $2-2.75 million

Alright, so I was closet without going over. Do I win a new car?

Matt Cullen

#7 / Center / Ottawa Senators

Height: 6-1

Weight: 200

Born: Nov 02, 1976

And since SBN's widgets are not working, we'll go ahead and give you stats via HockeyDB.com:

Not bad, in my opinion. Consistently pushing 50 points, fairly even splits between assists and goals. He has 60+ games of playoff experience, has won a Stanley Cup, and has been around the NHL long enough to be able to read the game better than most. He has the needed size to play physical, and has a strong defensive game as well. His 195 SOG would rank him second on the Wild, behind only Mikko Koivu.

It will certainly be interesting to see how he is received by the fans, as he is the first legitimate Minnesota born player ever to play for the Wild. Sure, Mark Parrish and Darby Hendrikson were solid players, but Cullen is better than both of them. He plays a more visible role, and is filling a hole that has been left wide open for a very long time.

As is expected, I have already seen people complaining about him, saying he is not good enough, not fast enough, not perfect enough. People need to zip it, and zip it right now. He is a perfect fit on that second line, and no one who actually pays attention to the games actually cares what you think anyway. By the second week of the season, Cullen is going to be a fan favorite, and everyone is going to be ticked off when he becomes a free agent is three years.

Besides, none of you want to see this, right?

Yeah, I didn't think so. So I found this for you, too. Just in case you try to tell me he can't play physical. Enjoy. Matt Cullen is not a savior. He is not the missing piece between where the Wild were and a Stanley Cup. That said, he is a huge piece of that puzzle, and the Wild are a much better team than they were at noon today. Now, go buy yourself a Cullen jersey, forget about the Boogey man, forget about the Twin towers and get excited about a team full of, you know... hockey players.