Andrew Cristall, the Caps prospect with ‘that grin about him,’ is making strides

The Capitals selected the 19-year-old winger with the No. 40 overall pick in the 2023 draft, taking a swing on Cristall’s high-end puck skills while calculating that his skating, which had widely been considered a weakness by scouts and evaluators, would improve. Washington was willing to trade up to snag Cristall, but ultimately didn’t need to.

“I really thought that he probably had a chance to go more in that 22 to kind of 30 range in the first round, so we were really happy,” assistant general manager Ross Mahoney said afterward. “I guess all the teams probably say that, but we were really happy to get him there. … He’s not the biggest guy and obviously needs to, like a lot of guys his age, get stronger. Do a lot of work in the gym to get himself a little bit stronger on his skates, but really, really bright player.”

Cristall was listed as 5-foot-10 and 175 pounds by the NHL’s central scouting department ahead of the draft. Those metrics didn’t change when he joined Hershey, Washington’s AHL affiliate, after his season in Kelowna ended, but in nearly a year since the draft, he’s added strength and has started to mature.

“My voice dropped a little bit, so maybe I’m getting a little bit older,” Cristall joked last week, with his trademark grin firmly in place.

Though Cristall hasn’t seen game action since the Rockets’ season ended in the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs in mid-April, and is unlikely to join Hershey’s lineup unless there’s a significant spate of injuries, he’s having a blast soaking up the environment in Hershey as the Bears push for a second consecutive Calder Cup championship. (Hershey begins the Eastern Conference final against the Cleveland Monsters on Thursday.

“We’ve just seen him in practice. Obviously, a really good skill-set,” Bears Coach Todd Nelson said. “He’s a player, he’s just a young guy. Boy, he’s going to develop into a real nice hockey player in the future. His skill-set around the net is great and he’s smart with the puck.”

Aware that his skating was a weakness, Cristall began working with Aidelbaum, a former figure skater who also works with Washington’s Beck Malenstyn and Vincent Iorio, in the summer of 2022. With limited time together that summer, the focus was on improving Cristall’s natural agility — making a strong area of his even stronger.

Last summer, squeezing work in around the draft preparation process and Cristall’s high school graduation, the focus turned to the fundamentals of the forward stride, tackling everything from weight distribution on the blades to knee-over-toe alignment.

Even when the work was taxing, Cristall’s attitude never wavered.

“He is on such a mission to the be the very best that he can be,” Aidelbaum said. “He’s a delight to spend time with every day on the ice. He has that grin about him. He grins and his eyes light up and they sparkle when he talks about hockey and his future in hockey.”

Cristall felt the difference when he took the ice with the Capitals for his first NHL training camp last September.

“I definitely thought that I felt like I could play with the pace and I was kind of up in the play,” he said. “I wasn’t really chasing it too much. That was kind of the first time I noticed it.”

The improvements carried over to his season in Kelowna, where he was an alternate captain and scored 40 goals while dishing out 71 assists in 62 games, marks that left him fifth in the WHL in total points. In the playoffs, Cristall tied for the team lead with 15 points in 11 games.

“I was pretty confident throughout the year. I thought every night, I could be a difference-maker,” Cristall said. “I thought I got better in a lot of areas, so I was pretty happy. My skating definitely came along a little bit. I felt like I had a little bit of an extra step and kind of allowed me to have some more room out there.”

Aidelbaum sees the difference, too.

“This season, when I saw some of the Kelowna Rockets games, I could see that he could move anywhere on the ice that he needed to,” Aidelbaum said. “Not everybody can recognize that. If skating isn’t your profession, you may look at it and go, ‘Oh, he still looks the same as what he did last year.’ They might not be able to see the small, little improvements. But what I’m saying now about his speed is evidence-based, because when he is in timing gates or on a stopwatch, his forward sprinting times are faster.

“It doesn’t matter how pretty it looks. The evidence is there.”

As a 19-year-old, Cristall isn’t eligible to be with Hershey full-time next season; his two options are to return to Kelowna or make the NHL roster, which is unlikely. But as he continues to develop physically and improve his skating to pair with his highlight-reel skill, he has the makings of a valuable piece of the Capitals’ future.

And the experience he’s getting in Hershey will pay dividends down the line, even if he never plays in a game.

“It’s pretty cool to be in this atmosphere on this team in the playoffs,” Cristall said. “Obviously, they’re the best team in the league and these guys are so established. It’s just good for me to learn.”

Andrew Cristall, the Caps prospect with ‘that grin about him,’ is making strides

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