The Rangers and winger William Cuylle have agreed to terms on a two-year contract worth $3.9MM per season, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Cuylle’s deal is back-loaded to give him a $4.68MM salary and corresponding qualifying offer upon expiry in 2027, per PuckPedia, where he’ll also have salary arbitration rights
Cuylle was a second-round pick by the Rangers back in 2020, going 60th overall and certainly has outperformed his draft stock. In 2023-24, he cracked New York’s lineup on a full-time basis and while his playing time was limited, he chipped in with 13 goals and eight assists in 81 games while also recording 248 hits.
There was some optimism that he could find another gear offensively heading into last season and Cuylle did just that. In 82 games, he potted 20 goals and 25 assists, good for a share of fifth in team scoring. He also saw his playing time jump up by nearly four minutes a game to a little over 15 minutes a night while also notching 301 hits, tied for the third-most in the NHL behind only Kiefer Sherwood (Vancouver) and Mathieu Olivier (Columbus).
Power forwards are hard to come by and coveted by many teams, making Cuylle a speculative offer sheet target, especially with the uncertainty with K’Andre Miller (who has since been traded to Carolina). While New York created some cap space earlier this offseason with the trade of Chris Kreider to Anaheim, they went and spent that money to lock up Vladislav Gavrikov on a seven-year, $49MM contract that was one of the biggest of the day.
That meant that a long-term pact for Cuylle was out of the question. Instead, the two sides have settled on a bridge deal that allows New York to stay cap-compliant while setting him up for a better deal two years from now. With the Upper Limit set to jump to around $113MM by the time this deal expires, Cuylle will be well-positioned for a big raise, assuming he continues to play at the level he did last season.
With the signing and today’s other movement, the Rangers find themselves with a little over $1.4MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, with a full roster. That gives GM Chris Drury a little wiggle room should the opportunity arrive to upgrade a depth player over the rest of the summer or, alternatively, keeping that space into next season would buy them some flexibility if injuries arise.
Josh Erickson also contributed to this post.