Rangers still struggling to fill out Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad line

If and when Will Cuylle starts Thursday night’s contest in St. Louis on the right side with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, the 21-year-old will become the BFF’s 14th co-conspirator in the wake of Pavel Buchnevich’s exit to St. Louis via trade following the 2020-21 season.

There have been, in no particular order, Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, Artemi Panarin, Barclay Goodrow, Sammy Blais, Dryden Hunt, Julien Gauthier, Frank Vatrano, Jimmy Vesey, Vlad Tarasenko, Patrick Kane, Jonny Brodzinski and, most recently, Blake Wheeler.

Over the three seasons of David Quinn’s tenure behind the bench that started in 2018-19, Nos. 20 and 93 were joined by 12 different colleagues that included Lafreniere, Kakko, Panarin and Vesey but also incorporated Mats Zuccarello, Jesper Fast, Kevin Hayes, Colin Blackwell, Vlad Namestnikov, Filip Chytil and Brendan Lemieux into the mix.

That adds up to 20 partners, that will become 21 against the Blues, over the last six seasons for the Rangers’ most stable two-man company up front. It seems like kind of a lot. So following practice, I asked Kreider whether he thinks it is difficult to play with him and Zibanejad.

“Mika, no; me, probably,” said Kreider, who was not exactly doing cartwheels over the line of inquiry. “We worked well with Buch, we worked well with Zucc, we worked well with Quickie [Fast] and with Frank for that stretch after the [2022] deadline.

“I think we’d been doing well with Wheels the last bunch of games but if you want to shake up the lineup you’re not going to touch the Trocheck line [with Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere] that’s one of the best offensive lines in hockey, so a change with us makes sense.

“I don’t think it’s a commentary on how we’ve been playing as a unit,” No. 20 said. “Even in the last game against Vancouver, I thought we were establishing possession in the ‘O’ zone. It seemed like we were always right there, one play away from putting it in the back of the net.”

The Rangers ideally do not want to go into the playoffs with a revolving door on the right side of this unit that is unambiguously the club’s second line even while Zibanejad is unambiguously its top center. That makes for a slightly unusual dynamic. Regardless, it is unclear whether Kreider and Zibanejad benefit most from having a shooter, a grinder, physicality, a playmaker, speed or a puck-hunting forechecker on the right side.

Pick a card. Any card.

GM Chris Drury has used the last two deadlines to attempt to plug that hole, acquiring Vatrano in 2022 and both Tarasenko and Kane last year. All three could be available to the Rangers again as the March 8 deadline approaches, with both Kane and Tarasenko rentals while Vatrano has another year on his contract at a $3.65 million cap hit.

But for now and at least for this one night, Cuylle appears in line for the assignment. When Kakko is activated off LTIR, the Finn could resume riding shotgun on the unit as he did for the season’s first 11 contests through which the line was on the ice for only two goals. The line was on for 14 goals in 24 games with Wheeler in tow, eight over the last 16 games in which the Blueshirts have been in an 8-7-1 tread-water mode.

“At times when I’m watching, it is for production,” head coach Peter Laviolette said when asked about inserting Cuylle in Wheeler’s spot. “But it’s more to what I said the other day [about double-shifting Panarin while keeping Brennan Othmann on the bench for nearly the entire second period against Vancouver].

“It’s not about who’s not doing the job. The opportunity to do that every once in a while puts hot players into a spot with a guy like Mika, who’s having a good year, and Kreids. It is also about balance inside of that and just making sure that all lines are producing and generating the way we want.”

Wheeler will skate on the checking line with Vesey and Goodrow while Jake Leschyshyn seems likely to skate between Nick Bonino (on the left) and Jonny Brodzinski on the fourth line. The Rangers’ bottom-six, by the way, has been on for a sum of three goals scored over the last 16 games.

Cuylle is a big-bodied, physically inclined winger with speed who plays in straight lines and makes it his mission to drive to the net and is not shy about knocking people down in order to get there. The 21-year-old also has a lethal wrist shot off a quick release that he has not demonstrated all that often through an impressive first half in which the rookie has scored seven goals.

“It’s not necessarily a knock on one person,” the head coach said of flipping Wheeler and Cuylle. “But if we want to see more production, more chances, more goals, you give any line or D-pair some time, you evaluate it and decide whether you like it and keep it or possibly make a change.”

There will be a change in St. Louis. That’s the constant that has applied to Zibanejad-Kreider for years.