Will Cuylle Gets Look At Center As Part Of Rangers' New Line Changes

In the wake of the New York Rangers’ fourth consecutive loss, Mike Sullivan is looking to experiment with some new line combinations.

During Monday’s practice, Sullivan made some pretty significant changes to his lines outside of the Pavel Dorofeyev-Mika Zibanejad-Alexis Lafrenière trio.

At the forefront of those changes was the Rangers’ new third line, which featured Will Cuylle at center alongside Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eeli Tolvanen.

Cuylle has never played the center position at any level, but Sullivan believed that his hockey attributes make him a perfect fit to play down the middle.

“I just feel like where we're at, we need to affect a little bit of change,” Sullivan said. “Will has a lot of qualities or the attributes that I think would allow him to be effective at that position. He can skate, he has good size, he can lean on people down low. He takes faceoffs regularly, on the penalty kill but also on the line he's been on. Him being the left and Labs being the righty. He's good in the faceoff circle…

“I've had a talk with Will about it. I think he's excited about the opportunity. He thinks he can be good at it. I tend to agree with him.”

Cuylle has a 44.4% career faceoff win percentage, winning 75 of the 168 faceoffs that he’s taken part in.

Despite being unfamiliar with playing center, Cuylle expressed confidence that his two-way abilities will help him seamlessly transition to a totally different position.

“I like to think I’m pretty responsible defensively,” Cuylle said. “I think that’s the biggest difference just in the D zone. I have a good idea of what to do, I think it’s just actually going out there and applying it will be the challenge for me.”

Cuylle spent the entirety of the season playing with Noah Laba, who had been playing the third-line center role up to this point.

In an increased role, specifically taking on more difficult defensive responsibilities, Laba has shown some inconsistencies. From an offensive standpoint, Laba has failed to score a goal through 15 games while posting a 35.9% xGF.

Sullivan referred to Laba’s play this season as a “mixed bag,” and he’s decided to move him down to the fourth line as part of his new line changes.

"He's had moments when he's been very effective for us,” Sullivan said of Laba. “I think there's been other moments where it's been a little bit of a struggle for him. I guess the biggest point of contention would just be consistency. ... When you look at the overall production of our lines, look at underlying analytics, things of that nature, we just felt as a staff that maybe we could affect a little bit of change there.”

Gabe Perreault, who spent one game playing with Cuylle and Laba, has been moved back into a top-six role, slotting onto a line with J.T. Miller and Tye Kartye.

The Rangers will be back in action on Tuesday night against the St. Louis Blues, with their new-look lines in action for the first time.