Rangers rookie Will Cuylle adapting to NHL while staying with the Trochecks 

When rookie Will Cuylle made the Rangers out of training camp, he didn’t get the OK from management to look for an apartment right away. Yes, he’d had a great training camp and an impressive preseason, but things can change quickly in the NHL, and it probably made sense for the 21-year-old Cuylle not to sign a lease until the team was certain he would be sticking around for more than a few weeks.

“I made the team, but they didn’t tell me to find a place yet,’’ Cuylle recalled. “So I would have been [staying] in the hotel. But Troch was like, ‘You can just stay here.’ ’’

“Troch” is Rangers center Vincent Trocheck, who happened to be Cuylle’s linemate for the first 11 games of the season. He didn’t think twice about offering the rookie a place to crash that he figured would be a little more comfortable than a hotel.

“I know what it’s like, staying in a hotel when you’re a young guy and you just made the team,’’ Trocheck said. “It’s not great. It’s lonely at times, and the hotel life, you just feel like you’re on the road the whole year. So I try to get the young guys over, at least for home-cooked meals every once in a while. But I knew his situation wasn’t ideal. And being out in the [Westchester County] suburbs, not in the city with some of the young guys, is even harder. So I just offered it up.’’

Trocheck’s wife signed off on the offer — once she found out about it.

“She signed off on it after the fact,’’ Trocheck said.

Seventeen games into the season, everything is working out. Cuylle has become part of not only the Rangers’ family but the Trochecks’ as well.

“We get along well,’’ Cuylle said. “He’s got kids, dogs. It’s good.’’

“He’s a good kid,’’ Trocheck said. “Respectful. He keeps quiet. He plays with the kids and he’s respectful to the family, so it’s been good so far.’’

On the ice, Cuylle is off to a strong start. He has three goals (and had two others taken away after video review) and two assists while playing in all 17 games. He’s established himself on the third line and also plays on the second power-play unit.

Entering the Blueshirts’ Black Friday afternoon game in Philadelphia, the 6-3, 211-pound left wing leads all NHL rookies in hits with 44. He is second on the Rangers in the category behind Jacob Trouba’s 45.

Now that it’s clear that Cuylle is here for the long haul, management has given him the go-ahead to get an apartment. But he said he isn’t planning on doing that. He doesn’t see any reason to do it.

“They told me I can find a place, but I’m still living with the [Trochecks],’’ he said. “It’s been good. I’ve been playing well, I think, and I don’t really want to like, mix things up. [Trocheck’s] playing really good, too.

“So, kind of, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.’’

Notes & quotes: The Rangers traveled to Philadelphia after their 1-0 win over Pittsburgh on Wednesday night and were off for the Thanksgiving holiday . . . Peter Laviolette will coach his 1,448th game Friday, tying him for 10th place in NHL history with Dick Irvin.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.