Will Cuylle adapting nicely to top-6 role with Rangers
Will Cuylle is proving to the New York Rangers that he can be more than just a third-line forward who can bang a lot and score a bit, too.
It’s no surprise that the second-round pick (No. 60) in the 2020 NHL Draft leads the Rangers with 173 hits, good for fifth in the League – after all, he was tops on the team and seventh in the NHL last season with 249 — the sixth-highest total in Rangers history. What’s more surprising is that he’s already scored 13 goals, matching his total for all of last season, his first full shot in the NHL.
And after starting the season as part of an effective third line with Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, Cuylle worked his way into a top-six role as left wing on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith.
The soon-to-be 23-year-old has played with his new linemates for seven games and has goals in each of his past two — including his first power-play goal of the season in the Rangers’ 5-0 blitz of the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
His goal Sunday in a 5-4 overtime road loss to the Montreal Canadiens ended a 15-game drought that could be at least partly blamed on being moved around the lineup after Chytil was injured and Kakko’s production declined, leading to him being traded to the Seattle Kraken a month ago. The slump came after he had 10 goals in the first two months of the season, mostly playing on the third line.
He’s still on pace to finish with 22 goals as well as to become the first Rangers player since the NHL began tracking hits in 2007-08 to finish with more than 300 (Ryan Callahan holds the team record with 285 in 2009-10). Cuylle led the Rangers with five against the Senators and seven in a 1-0 shootout win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Coach Peter Laviolette said before Tuesday’s game that he’s been happy with the Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith trio.
“I think they’ve been good,” he said. “They’ve been playing against top lines, and I think they’ve done a pretty good job. Defensively, I think they’ve done some good things. Offensively, they’ve contributed as well.”
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Laviolette feels some of Cuylle’s drop-off in production prior to the past two games can also be attributed to the fact that he’s facing better opposition on the ice.
“Not necessarily [a different role] — they get a little bit tougher opponents sometimes,” he said of Cuylle’s top-six role now compared with playing on the third line. “Will’s a young player that we’re constantly — in a positive way — trying to make sure that defensively he’s good. Which he is, for the most part. It becomes different when you start playing against top lines all the time. The role of penalty kill, the role of out there late in the game.”
He’s also been seeing more ice time. Cuylle averages 16:34 TOI in the seven games with his new linemates, bumping his season average up to an even 15:00 per game. That’s a huge jump from the 11:08 per game he played as a rookie.
It’s been a learning process for Cuylle, and Laviolette knows there will be hiccups along the way. But he’s confident the young forward will grow and learn in his new role.
“It’s not always perfect, and you go back and you work and you show and you teach and you do things out on the ice,” he said. “But we see him as a real good two-way player that’s physical. We want him to play great defense against other team’s top lines, and we want him to be able to contribute offensively against those lines as well.”
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