From his first four career games in the middle of last season to the first four games of this season, Will Cuylle has officially arrived in the NHL.
Aside from the natural impressiveness of earning a spot in the Rangers’ lineup at 21 years old, the quality of his small body of work has proven this was the right time for Cuylle to make the jump.
The rookie mistakes have been few and far between.
He does not look out of place or draw attention in a negative way.
His steadiness on the defensive side of the puck has been admirable.
“Will is a young player,” Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said earlier this week. “I haven’t seen anything — there’s always something, right, defensively? But there hasn’t been these ‘uh-oh’ type of moments with Will. He’s done a really good job of playing defense and using his size and his power and his physicality and his speed to play good defense and to try to generate offense. I think he’s done a good job.”
The stars aligned during the preseason for that to be possible. Between Cuylle’s emergence in the previous AHL campaign — over which he led the Hartford Wolf Pack with 25 goals in 69 games — and the fact that a new head coach came in to evaluate the Rangers’ pool of players with fresh eyes, there was no question that the team’s 60th-overall pick in 2020 belonged in the NHL.
Cuylle didn’t just make the Rangers to fill a fourth-line role, like the one he played from the end of January and into early February last season.
He didn’t make it as a depth skater who would only be called upon due to injury or poor team play, either.
Laviolette came right out and classified Cuylle as a top-nine option.
So far, Cuylle has skated on the left wing of the third line, alongside Vincent Trocheck and Blake Wheeler.
It has made for a big-bodied unit that should have more of an offensive upside than it has had, but the numbers indicate that they’re trending in that direction.
In 37:19 of ice time, according to Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers’ third unit has out-attempted opponents 13-6, and has held a 7-4 edge in high-danger chances through the first four games of the season.
Cuylle scored his first NHL goal in the Rangers’ loss to Columbus, but with the way he has competed around the net, the next one shouldn’t be too far on the horizon.
“You come into the National Hockey League and now you’re playing against men in a man’s game against some of the best players that we have to put out on the ice,” Laviolette said. “At times I think that can be challenging for young players. I think he’s done a really good job. He’s played a really good game. We show him a few things here and there, but he’s not the topic of conversation when it comes to a ton of video of what’s off with his game.
“I think he does a lot of good things. He plays a straightforward game, he has a lot of speed, he plays with physicality, he generates scoring chances. And that’s been consistent, too. That’s been through training camp, as well. It’s not like you have one good game and that’s it. I find that most of the conversations we have with Will are maybe minor teaching and really positive, whereas it could be a lot of teaching a lot of things that go on.
“I said it the other day, we should leave him alone because he’s playing hard and he’s doing the right things and he has a real positive impact on the game.”
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