Will Cuylle has been a great story of success for the New York Rangers, and one of the few young players who has seemingly found his footing. Over the past two seasons he's established himself in the bottom six, but Mike Sullivan is giving Cuylle to take his game to another level this season.
Mike Sullivan sees Cuylle starting in the top six
Mike Sullivan said he envisions Will Cuylle starting the year in the top six.
— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) September 19, 2025
A lot can change between today and opening night, but Cuylle has been skating as the top-line left wing with J.T. Miller at center, and Mika Zibanejad on the right wing. It is an opportunity for Cuylle to play with two skilled forwards he spent a bit of time with to end the 2024-25 season, and he's looking forward to the opportunity according to Remy Mastey of THN.
“It’s nice when a coach kind of gives you an opportunity and kind of sees what you can do,” Cuylle said. “I’m looking forward to starting the season. I played with them a bit last year, at the end of the year, so I thought that we had some good success and some good chemistry, I think those are two world-class players, so you can learn a lot from them, and obviously, (get) more ice time with them. That would be a good opportunity..."
Cuylle has the tools to maximize opportunity given to him
Cuylle is a player who doesn't get enough credit for how good he was last year, and he's in a great position to thrive. He's got good size at 6'3" and 212 pounds, he is a good skater, plays a physical game which creates space, and is an underrated shooter. Cuylle has also gotten better as his career has continued, and this seems like a natural next step to get a sense of what his true potential is as a player.
The Rangers 2020 second rounder only skated 15:05 per game last season and still finished within spitting distance of 50 points. If he were to spend the entirety of this season in the top six, he could realistically see around18:00 per night. What was even more impressive for Cuylle were some of his underlying numbers on a bad 2024-25 Rangers squad. Last season Cuylle posted a 54.86 GF%, a 49.64 CF%, and a 48.36 xGF%. He also had 2.10 points per 60 at 5v5 which was up from 1.23 generated the previous season.
What happens next is entirely up to Cuylle, but everything we know about him suggest he's up for the challenge. He's proven to be an aggressive hard-working hockey player that looks to make an impact at all times, and him taking his game to another level would only help the Rangers as they look to get back to contention this season.