After a four-game break at NHL level last season, Will Cuylle made his breakthrough as a full-time NHL player in his D+4 season.
Drafted with the 60th overall pick in 2020 (a pick he acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Lias Andersson), Cuylle became the first forward not drafted in the first round of the Rangers’ draft to play more than 20 games with the team since Pavel Buchnevich was a third-round pick in 2013.
Cuylle spent most of the season in a bottom-six position, serving as a useful depth forward who brought a physical touch to the ice while also contributing enough offensively to showcase the non-physical aspects of his game.
Boxcar Stats: 81 games, 13 goals, 8 out, 119 soG, 11:07 end of game/games, 56 minutes of play, +1 penalty point difference, -3 goal difference with equal playing strength
5v5 Analysis Metrics: 1.23 points/60, -1.44 relative CF%, -0.31 relative SF%, -3.40 relative GF%, -0.36 relative expected GF%, -2.63 relative SCF%, 99.2 on-ice PDO, 3.0 goals above replacement
Playoff Stats: 2 points, 11:17 TOI/GP, 0.04 Relative CF%, 3.36 Relative xGF%, +4 5v5 goal difference
Entering training camp, Cuylle was far from certain to make the roster. Not only did he beat out players like Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard to get into New York’s lineup, but he also had to compete with veteran wingers Blake Wheeler and Tyler Pitlick for regular playing time. He managed to do so, missing just one game over the course of the season.
It didn’t take long for the rookie to get on the scoresheet, as Cuylle’s first NHL goal came in New York’s second game of the season, the sixth of his NHL career, against the Columbus Blue Jackets. No one would mistake Cuylle for a Rocket Richard candidate, but the young forward did what was asked of him while his teammates came and went around him.
Cuylle was more effective in the first two-thirds of the regular season before waning in the home stretch before the playoffs. Despite having a full professional season under his belt last season, Cuylle still fell victim to the rookie wall in the latter part of the season.
After scoring multiple points for the first time in his NHL career, recording a goal and an assist against Montreal on February 15, Cuylle’s offensive output began to wane. The rookie scored 18 points in his first 54 games, but only managed five points in the remaining 43 games, 27 regular-season games and New York’s entire playoff run.
While Cuylle’s stat line of 14-9 is more reminiscent of a capable MLB starter than an NHL forward, Cuylle’s numbers under the hood were encouraging. The Rangers weren’t a demonstrably better team with Cuylle on the ice than without, but the team was better compared to some of the other frequent substitutes like Jimmy Vesey and Jonny Brodzinski.
When the playoffs began, Cuylle was primarily found on the third line, flanked by Kaapo Kakko and trade-dealer Alex Wennberg. Although each member of the trio finished the playoffs with just one goal and one assist each, the Rangers won the trio’s minutes at a rate that was among the best of any forward line that played more than 50 minutes together.
MoneyPuck had the Cuylle-Wennberg-Kakko trio at 68.9% of expected goals, behind only the Zach Hyman-Connor McDavid-Leon Draisaitl trio in Edmonton and the Matthew Tkachuk-Evan Rodrigues-Sam Bennett trio in Florida.
I’m not saying that Cuylle was the driving force behind that success, or that the line was simply “better” than the Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere line that seemingly generated and exploited all of New York’s balanced offense throughout the playoffs, but Cuylle was a useful player, even if he wasn’t the sole driver of the win.
The Cuylle-Wennberg-Kakko trio outscored their opponents 2-1 in the playoffs, but Cuylle was successful no matter who his teammates were. Cuylle’s +4 goal differential on the ice at 5-on-5 (five goals for, one against) was the best differential of any Ranger in the playoffs.
The key is to increase goal differential on the ice, and while Cuylle excelled at that in the playoffs, you have to be aware of the small sample size for a player who didn’t generate a lot of individual offense. Cuylle will need to increase the scoring pace he showed early in his rookie season while avoiding a second year of late-season slumps to be able to play a bigger role in 2024-25.
New York’s offseason trades have created a void for one of the top nine wingers when training camp begins in September, and Cuylle will have to win another training camp battle to keep the spot in the lineup he held throughout the postseason.
Final thoughts:
As disastrous as the Lias Andersson situation was, it’s nice that the Rangers still managed to get a capable NHL skater out of that mess. Will Cuylle was a supporting figure for the Blueshirts as a rookie, but he was effective in the few minutes he got. Whether Cuylle develops into more than a supporting figure remains to be seen, but the young forward has given the Rangers everything they could ask for in his first full NHL season.
Author grade: B
Masthead Average: B (1 B+, 4 B’s)
All data about Development of hockey, Natural statistical trick, NHL.com, And MoneyPuck
