The bright spots for Will Cuylle have kept blending together through the first 13 Rangers games. A goal here. An assist there. Nine points in total.
The hits — the same ones that helped define his contributions as a rookie — that keep stringing together. And in the middle of a Rangers embarrassment last week, he provided the latest bright spot.
He faded toward the Buffalo net and positioned himself in front of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen less than five minutes into the third period, and when defenseman Zac Jones released a shot, it deflected off Cuylle, careened over Luukkonen and settled into the net.
It marked his fourth goal of the season, and he’s on pace to surge past the 21 points he collected as a rookie in 81 games.
This year, Cuylle has continued to emerge as a piece of the Rangers’ productive third line, complementing his physicality with offensive production and building a foundation that could extend his strong start into more than just that.
“I think that there’s a natural progression with that,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “You’d like to think that somebody coming in their first year that scores a dozen goals, you’d like to think that there’s upside to that — and then probably an upside in the fourth or fifth year.
“It doesn’t always keep climbing. There’s peaks and valleys to it. … He’s a guy that’s put up points and has scored goals wherever he’s been, so I would imagine that that progression would take place here as well.”
There’s a “maturity” to Cuylle’s game in his second season, Laviolette said.
A subdued belief. In the OHL, Cuylle’s point total went from 41 to 42 to 80 in his three seasons with the Windsor Spitfires.
His AHL production jumped from five points in an 18-game sample to 45 in a 69-game one. And he’s on pace for a similar one to follow with the Rangers.
Cuylle has already generated 22 high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, after creating 58 last year.
He scored goals in consecutive games at the end of October against the Ducks and Capitals — sparking a stretch of three goals in his past six games entering Tuesday’s matchup with Winnipeg at the Garden.
He’s one of nine players in the NHL to pair together nine points and at least 40 hits so far this season, according to the team.
The next step, though, will involve Cuylle preventing his spark from getting extinguished. Eighteen of his points occurred during the opening 54 games of the 2023-24 campaign, and throughout his final 43 games in the regular season and playoffs, Cuylle collected just five.
The hits have emerged as the consistent element of his skill set, and he sits in a tie for the fifth-most in the NHL entering Monday’s games.
But for now, Cuylle has provided a glimpse of the offensive production that could keep appearing, too.
Defenseman Ryan Lindgren had a maintenance day and didn’t practice Monday.
After some line and defensive-pairing shuffling in recent games, the Rangers operated with the same look as Saturday’s win ahead of the Jets game — with the exception of Victor Mancini slotting in alongside Adam Fox in place of Lindgren.
