H/W: 6’1” - 180lbs
Date of Birth: 2008-09-08
Stats to Date: 12-22-34 (34 GP)
There has seldom been a game this season for the USNTDP that Wyatt Cullen hasn’t been their best player. This year’s class for the USNTDP has been underwhelming to say the least, as the team has lacked its usual star power and toiled at the bottom of the USHL standings. Cullen missed a chunk of time due to injury but has been the dynamic straw that stirs the drink offensively when in the lineup, finishing as the program’s only point-per-game player this year. He followed that up by hovering near the leaders of the U18 Men’s World Championships in scoring, with 9 points in 5 games.
The son of longtime NHLer Matt Cullen, Wyatt has always been a shifty skater with good hands, but a growth spurt (6+ inches) over the last two years has him up to 6’1” and now firmly in the mid-first round discussion for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. He is also among the youngest players in the entire draft class. That being said he is certainly among the most frustrating players in this year’s class, as his high end ability is complemented by inconsistent effort and often trying to do too much himself when he has the puck on his stick.
Cullen is one player who feels like he has among the widest range of outcomes in this year’s draft. Could he be a top-line winger? Or even a centre? The skill and the skating suggest that it could be possible. Or is he more of a middle-six powerplay contributor at the pro level? His decision-making and average shot suggest this may be where he ends up. Or does his odd combination of drastic body changes and bad habits from this season hold him back from even reaching that?
Note for all of these video clips that Cullen is #7 for Team USA (Blue or White), he tucks the back of his jersey, which can make it a little hard to see the number.
Skating:
Cullen is a very good skater, which is extra impressive given how much he has grown over the past few years. His edge work is high-end, and he often uses tight turns to create separation from defenders. With his added length, he is now starting to pull away from opponents in ways he couldn’t previously when his strides were naturally shorter. His agility remains a massive part of his skillset, though he is still in the process of maintaining it while he adjusts to his taller frame (sometimes balance is an issue at this point). As he continues to maintain his skating skill and adapt, his skating should be the focal point of his skillset moving forward.
He loves to attack open ice and doesn’t need a ton of space to get going at top speed, Cullen’s skating is arguably the top part of his game.
Cullen is constantly skating into open ice when he doesn’t have the puck. Some nifty edgework here before beating the defender one-on-one for a beauty.
Cullen’s high-end edgework comes so naturally to him that clips like this of evading defenders with his skating can be found in basically every game.
Grade: 57.5
Shot:
Cullen is likely going to be more of a playmaker than a sniper as a pro, as his shot grades out as slightly above average. At this point, his wrister is pretty much the only shot he uses regularly, and though it is not very hard, it is quite accurate, as he has no problem getting pucks through traffic or beating goalies with perfect placement. His release is not particularly quick or deceptive, so he really is just relying on pinpoint accuracy right now. Even though he often scores from range, he does not have a slapshot in his arsenal, and will need to either add one or improve his wrist shot power (which should come with growing stronger), in order to score from the range he currently does when he is a pro.
Excellent job forcing a turnover with the pokecheck and then a pinpoint accurate shot shortside from the corner.
Cullen beats junior goalies with wrist shots like this from a distance.
Again with a long-range wrister, excellently aimed through traffic that screens the goalie.
Cullen gets this shot off a split second too late, and off his back foot, but it still finds a way in.
Grade: 52.5
Skills:
There are few in this year’s draft class that like to attack defenders with the puck on their stick as much as Cullen, and he has excellent hands to match. It doesn’t matter if he is attacking at full speed, or slowing down and moving East-West, he is constantly challenging defenders head-on, before quickly darting around them, or trying to deke through them. While this is a strength of his, he also can be prone to overhandling pucks rather than using teammates, especially on the rush.
In the offensive zone, Cullen is great at drawing defenders' attention and finding teammates with passes. On the power play he played both flanks this year, where he functioned as the main facilitator for the USNTDP. He likely is more of a complementary powerplay option at the NHL level.
Cullen can hide in the weeds until the right time to strike and can become a massive threat out of nowhere.
Late in a shift, Cullen tries to find offense any way he can here. After getting bumped to the corner, he turns back and draws attention from all of the defenders, allowing him to find a teammate right in the slot for a dangerous chance.
A simple strip into a partial break, and a smooth deke around the last defender draws a desperation penalty.
Cullen makes this really tight, quick succession of dekes look so easy, showcasing great hands in tight rather than panicking when running out of time and space.
It’s amazing how quickly Cullen can turn a scrum into a ten-bell chance.
Very active on his feet, Cullen finds a stick after his first shot doesn’t work.
Again on the powerplay, Cullen does an excellent job sorting through coverage when playmaking downhill, adjusting his reads barely looking.
Grade: 57.5
Smarts:
Cullen reads the game well without the puck. He is great at identifying soft ice, but sometimes he can fade away from the play a bit. He recovers very well from this, though, as he will often sneak into dangerous areas when he re-enters the play, more than ready to strike. Defence is not a priority for him at this point, but given a different team context, he should be able to more than handle defensive assignments.
As previously mentioned, his lack of offensive help at the USNTDP this year resulted in some tunnel-vision tendencies, at times opting to hold onto the puck far too long rather than using his teammates. If he can correct this and use his teammates a bit more on the rush, it would significantly reduce his turnover count. He also could work on making quicker playmaking decisions in the offensive zone, as he often tries to buy time by using cutbacks or circling the zone.
Another question with Cullen is whether he projects more as a winger or a centre as a pro. Again, his drastic growth spurt has been a factor in this new outlook. He did play a bit of centre this season, but still mainly lined up on the wing. In a draft that is shallow on centres with upside, it is easy to look at Cullen’s skillset (and his bloodlines, as Matt was a centre) and see that Wyatt could eventually grow into a full-time centreman role. At this point, due to a lot of the habits he’s picked up this season, wing seems to be the most likely outcome, but it would not be surprising at all for a team to draft him and make a concerted effort to convert him to centre.
Cullen’s positioning as the left winger in the defensive zone here is questionable at best, but he is communicating with his linemates well here and calls the switch with his centreman. On the rush, he draws all the defensive attention, beats the first guy one-on-one, and finds his teammate for the one-timer.
First, he finds a teammate with a slick pass between two defenders, and then Cullen skates into open ice, diving down into the slot at the perfect time for a great chance.
Cullen is always looking for the next offensive opportunity. As soon as he sees that his teammate is going to end up with the puck, he stretches the ice for the breakaway.
Most players are shooting this, but Cullen instead slips it right back to his teammate for a tap-in.
Given the relative lack of talent around him on this year’s USNTDP team, Cullen got used to doing a lot of the offensive heavy lifting himself. The tunnel-vision is now something that needs to be ironed out.
Again, Cullen might as well be on the ice by himself in this clip, never once considering moving the puck, rather opting to be the hero himself. Predictably, it does not end well.
Grade: 55
Physicality/Compete:
Physicality is a tough category to gauge at this point, as Cullen’s size has changed so drastically in such a short amount of time. Right now, he still plays pretty small, and easily gets pushed off of pucks or kept to the outside by defenders. He also tends to avoid a lot of puck battles, instead opting to cheat for offense or leave his teammates to do the bulk of the work along the boards. It will be interesting to see if Cullen gets more engaged physically when his frame fills out a bit more, though there will certainly be a learning curve with that.
Cullen tries to throw a reverse hit here and it is somewhat useful, even if not overly impactful. He certainly needs to get stronger right now, and this is a pretty good example of where his strength level is currently.
Here is a flash at what Cullen can contribute defensively when he is checked in away from the puck. A burst of speed and a simple strip with a nice kick to his teammate.
Props to Cullen for being great at fishing pucks out of piles, but he should be a bit more involved in the puck battle, and at least stay above the puck in case the other team gets it. He is also clearly not too interested in tracking back into his own zone and is fortunate that his teammates force a neutral zone turnover.
At this point, Cullen is pushed off of pucks far too easily. He’s coming off a large growth spurt, so now he will need to focus on filling out his taller frame and getting stronger.
Grade: 50
OFP: 54.875
A note on the 20-80 scale used above. We look at five attributes (skating, shooting, puck skills, hockey IQ and physicality) for skaters and six for goalies (athleticism/quickness, compete/temperament, vision/play reading, technique/style, rebound control and puck handling). Each individual attribute is graded along the 20-80 scales, which includes half-grades. The idea is that a projection of 50 in a given attribute meant that our observer believed that the player could get to roughly NHL average at that attribute at maturity.