Rangers Sign Will Cuylle to two-year contract

According to multiple reports, including one from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the New York Rangers have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with restricted free agent forward Will Cuylle.

The deal will pay Cuylle $7.8 million over its two-year span for an average annual value of $3.9 million. There was plenty of speculation that Cuylle could be a candidate for an offer sheet given New York’s existing salary cap obligations, but this deal puts that to bed.

The 2024-2025 season was a massive disappointment for New York, as the team missed the playoffs altogether after winning the Presidents’ Trophy and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final the year before.

Cuylle and his development proved to be a major bright spot in an otherwise miserable season on Broadway. The 23-year-old played in all 82 regular season games and tallied 20 goals, 25 assists and 45 points while posting a plus-12 rating.

At six-foot-three, Cuylle’s combination of speed, physicality and scoring touch makes him a fit to play anywhere in a top nine.

The Ontario native finished the season tied for third among all NHL skates in hits with 301, trailing only Kiefer Sherwood and Mathieu Olivier.

Cuylle is a major building block for a Rangers team that is short on young, cost-controlled talent, and he will get every opportunity to build on his momentum next season in the top six.

After the completion of a pending trade that would send K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes in a sign-and-trade, the Rangers will have about $1.5 million in salary cap space.

General manager Chris Drury has been active this offseason. Earlier Tuesday, he signed defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year, $49 million contract to upgrade the team’s top pairing alongside Adam Fox.

In June, he sent franchise legend Chris Kreider to Anaheim in a bid to increase his salary cap flexibility for just that sort of move.