Will Cuylle’s first legitimate top-six assignment in the NHL has come in just his second season.
Tuesday’s matchup with the Senators at Madison Square Garden may have counted as the 22-year-old’s seventh straight game on the left wing of Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith, but Cuylle has started 19 total contests on either the first or second lines.
Though the most successful stretch of Cuylle’s individual campaign — and his young NHL career — unfolded while in his third-line role alongside Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko earlier this season.
The Kid Line 2.0 had a lot of the same attributes as the original version with Alexis Lafreniere, but Cuylle brought a physical edge to the unit that made them an even bigger pain to defend.
Skating in 13 of the first 15 games of the season together, and then another four games before Kakko was a healthy scratch in St. Louis on Dec. 15, the trio was on the ice for 13 Rangers goals and just two against at five-on-five in 184:16, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The healthy scratch and Kakko’s response expedited the Finn’s trade to Seattle, but it also prevented one of the team’s most successful units from ever reuniting again.
Cuylle racked up 10 goals and dished 12 assists through the first 19 games of the season.
Since then, prior to Tuesday’s game, he’s posted five goals and five assists with a minus-six rating in the past 27.
“Not necessarily [a different role], they get a little bit tougher opponents sometimes,” Head coach Peter Laviolette said of Cuylle’s role now compared to with Chytil and Kakko. “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.
“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. 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.”
Zibanejad and Smith are not the first set of top-six forwards Cuylle has skated with this season.
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The 6-foot-3, 212-pounder has also lined up next to Vincent Trocheck and Smith, Brett Berard and Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Chytil, Trocheck and Kakko, Lafreniere and Chytil, as well as Chris Kreider and Chytil.
None of the aforementioned trios played together long enough to draw any concrete conclusions, but Cuylle’s production drop-off could be drawn back to all his movement throughout the lineup.
In 71:55 of ice time for Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith entering Tuesday’s game, they have been on the ice for just one Rangers goal and five against during five-on-five play.
They’ve been out-attempted 40-31, but have also held an eye catching 19-9 edge in high-danger chances.
“I think they’ve been good,” Laviolette 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.”