From his first 4 profession games in the course of last season to the primary 4 games of this season, Will Cuylle has officially arrived within the NHL.
Apart from the natural impressiveness of earning a spot within the Rangers’ lineup at 21 years old, the standard of his small body of labor has proven this was the proper time for Cuylle to make the jump.
The rookie mistakes have been few and much between.
He doesn’t look misplaced 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 all the time something, right, defensively? But there hasn’t been these ‘uh-oh’ kind of moments with Will. He’s done a extremely good job of playing defense and using his size and his power and his physicality and his speed to play good defense and to attempt to generate offense. I believe he’s done a very good job.”
The celebrities aligned through the preseason for that to be possible. Between Cuylle’s emergence within the previous AHL campaign — over which he led the Hartford Wolf Pack with 25 goals in 69 games — and the proven fact that a latest head coach got here in to judge the Rangers’ pool of players with fresh eyes, there was no doubt that the team’s Sixtieth-overall pick in 2020 belonged within the NHL.
Cuylle didn’t just make the Rangers to fill a fourth-line role, just like the one he played from the top of January and into early February last season.
He didn’t make it as a depth skater who would only be called upon as a consequence of injury or poor team play, either.
Laviolette got here right out and classified Cuylle as a top-nine option.
Up to now, 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 ought to have more of an offensive upside than it has had, however the numbers indicate that they’re trending in that direction.
In 37:19 of ice time, in response to Natural Stat Trick, the Rangers’ third unit has out-attempted opponents 13-6, and has held a 7-4 edge in high-danger possibilities through the primary 4 games of the season.
Cuylle scored his first NHL goal within the Rangers’ loss to Columbus, but with the way in which he has competed around the online, the subsequent 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 person’s game against a few of the most effective players that we now have to place out on the ice,” Laviolette said. “At times I believe that may be difficult for young players. I believe he’s done a extremely good job. He’s played a extremely good game. We show him a couple of things here and there, but he’s not the subject of conversation relating to a ton of video of what’s off together with his game.
“I believe he does quite a lot of good things. He plays a simple game, he has quite a lot of speed, he plays with physicality, he generates scoring possibilities. And that’s been consistent, too. That’s been through training camp, as well. It’s not like you have got one good game and that’s it. I find that the majority of the conversations we now have with Will are possibly minor teaching and really positive, whereas it could possibly be quite a lot of teaching quite a lot of things that go on.
“I said it the opposite day, we must always leave him alone because he’s playing hard and he’s doing the proper things and he has an actual positive impact on the sport.”