Tye Kartye turning heads with Rangers after he was claimed off waivers

For an undrafted participant scooped up off the waiver wire late last season, Tye Kartye continues to earn expanded alternatives and make an affect in all sides of the sport for the Rangers. 

The 25-year-old winger logged a career-high 20:06 of ice time and netted the go-ahead aim with 4:39 remaining in Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Flyers at the Garden. 

“I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s a great kid, and he loves hockey,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said after the sport. “He competes exhausting. He works at his sport every day. He’s a relentless employee. He’s just a great teammate, I think. 

“Ever since we picked him up and he joined our team, he’s just fit in with our group. I think he’s getting better and better. And he brings so many intangibles, he’s good on the penalty kill, his puck-pursuit game, he skates, he hunts pucks. And he’s conscientious defensively. He’s been a great fit for our group. I think he thrives in the game that we’re trying to play.” 

Claimed off waivers from the Kraken on Feb. 27, Kartye has been a productive participant for the Blueshirts with 10 targets and 26 factors in 41 appearances — the equal of half an NHL marketing campaign — including 5-7-12 numbers through the Rangers’ 9-7-1 begin this season. He never totaled more than 22 factors in his three-plus seasons with Seattle, where the Rangers will open a four-game street journey Saturday night time. 

“Just doing my job, honestly,” Kartye said Thursday night time. “Everyone has a job to do out there, in every completely different scenario, whether that’s five-on-five, energy play or penalty kill. 

“So when everyone knows what they’re doing and everyone is executing, it makes it a lot easier.”

The 6-foot Kartye, who signed with Seattle in 2022 after going undrafted out of junior hockey with Sault Ste. Marie of the Ontario Hockey League, has been enjoying currently on the left facet of the Rangers’ No. 2 line alongside captain J.T. Miller and Gabe Perreault. 

Kartye also has been a common half of the ahead rotation on the group’s penalty-kill unit, and he not too long ago was promoted to the group’s second power-play group. 

“I can’t say enough about him, he’s making contributions in a ton of different ways,” Miller said. “I feel like he made his way by being a good forechecker, and now he’s a heck of a hockey player, and he’s getting rewarded.”

To wit, the outcome has been more than 20 minutes of ice time in each of the previous two video games — marking the first two instances Kartye has performed that much in his NHL profession. 

“It’s more just the flow of games,” Sullivan added. “We said to ourselves that this man five-on-five is one of our main scorers, so it would most likely make sense to strive him on a energy play. So we’ve began to use him there, and he’s half of our penalty kill, and he’s enjoying on the high six. 

“We’ve had this conversation that sometimes that adds up to 20-plus minutes. What I like about Tye is he’s got a real good motor. He recovers well. I think just my experience of coaching him here for the time that I’ve had him, he’s a guy that can handle minutes with the way he plays. I don’t know that we want to get into a circumstance where he’s playing 20-plus night after night after night. But on the odd occasion if he gets up in that range, I think because of his motor, he can handle it.” 

Sullivan also believes that Kartye’s hard-nosed type makes him a sturdy complementary match on a two-way line alongside Miller, slotting in behind the expert high unit of Mika Zibanejad between Pavel Dorofeyev and Alexis Lafrenière. 

“They have some chemistry, and I know they like playing with each other,” Sullivan said. “Tye brings a pace component and just gets in on the forecheck and creates turnovers, free pucks, that permit the line to get in on high of the puck and then they play from there. 

“But I think J.T.’s game down low, underneath the hash marks, at the net front, just his puck-possession game, he’s a handful for anybody. They play a lot of times against the other team’s top players, and more often than not they’re controlling play.”