The two games captured it all for Will Cuylle. They served as a microcosm for the variety of roles he can fill — and thrive in — for the Rangers, and showcased the impact he can make, even if a path to the top six isn't as clear as it was at the start of last year.
There Cuylle was last Sunday, sending the Mammoth's Dylan Guenther into the boards and stepping up to fight when Jack McBain challenged him later on. And there the left winger was one week later, in the Blueshirts' 6-2 win over the Canucks on Sunday at the Garden, recording the fifth multi-goal game of his career with his first tallies of the season. It gave him five points through seven games, an early pace that'd allow him to shatter his career best of 45 from 2023-24 and a blueprint to make that happen.
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His pair of goals — which gave the Rangers five victories in seven games entering Tuesday's home match against the Lightning — also marked a first emergence of his scoring touch in his fifth season that could help lift his ceiling beyond the 20 goals from each of the last two years. They were just the second and third goals for his line at 5-on-5 play this season, a promising development for a third line tasked with relieving the pressure, both offensively and defensively, for the Rangers top six.
"I mean, I thought [Sunday] was good for our line," Cuylle said postgame Sunday. "I thought for the most part we were down in their end. I think we've been kinda building our game all year. Results haven't always come, but analytically getting a lot of chances, a lot of Grade A chances. So it's only a matter of time before they start going in."
Cuylle's first goal unfolded in the early minutes of the second period, when Noah Laba sent a pass to him in the neutral zone. Cuylle weaved around Linus Karlsson near the blue line and flicked a shot into the Canucks net. Then, with under five minutes remaining in the third, Cuylle crashed the net while on the rush and deposited an Eeli Tolvanen rebound past Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen.
New York Rangers left wing Will Cuylle (50) celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal during the third period against the Vancouver Canucks. Robert Sabo for NY Post
But near the end of 2025-26, Cuylle didn't mince words when talking about his game. He had a "higher expectation" for himself moving forward, he told The Post's Mollie Walker in March. He admitted that he had good stretches and poor stretches. Cuylle's physicality and production had blended together at times throughout the year, allowing him to hit the 20-goal threshold again, but it still left him knowing he could add more.
The 24-year-old opened training camp on a line with Laba at center and Tolvanen, and it's the only line that head coach Mike Sullivan has left intact to this point. Sunday marked the group's best expected goals number for the season — 0.58, which led the Rangers forward combinations — and their best expected goals for percentage (65.63) since the home opener, according to Natural Stat Trick. In between, there were early low points, such as when they had a 9.99 expected goals for percentage in the Mammoth game and a 6.25 clip against the Red Wings, but that line, Sullivan said recently, is "a responsible line" that has filled the role the Rangers are looking for.
Cuylle's individual production, too, has been at the center of that. He has at least one point in five of the Blueshirts' seven games this season. He leads the Rangers with 26 hits — Tye Kartye has the second most with 17 — and sat third in the NHL entering play Monday after finishing third and fourth for hits leaguewide the past two years.
And if Sunday's performance becomes a formula that Cuylle can keep replicating across an 84-game marathon, if his line can handle defensive-zone draws and consistently produce goals, it'll only help Cuylle continue to reset his Rangers ceiling.
"I think Will, that's an important element of Will's game — the physicality that he brings," Sullivan said after the Mammoth game, when Cuylle fought for the 12th time in his NHL career. "He's such a great athlete. He skates so well. He finishes checks. He's hard on pucks. When he plays that way, he's hard to play against. He certainly makes us a better team."
