Andrew Cristall dominated the WHL with the Kelowna Rockets and Spokane Chiefs during the 2024-25 season, taking home the Bob Clarke Trophy as the league’s leading scorer with 132 points (48g, 84a) in 57 games. He followed that up with an equally dominant playoff run for the Chiefs, finishing with 41 points (21g, 20a) in 19 postseason games.
Cristall’s next test will come either with the Washington Capitals or Hershey Bears when he begins his professional career during the 2025-26 campaign. And according to Capitals GM Chris Patrick, if Cristall is ultimately assigned to Hershey, he may not stay there very long.
“Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun, I think,” Patrick said of Cristall’s immediate future. “He’s going to come in, if he has a camp like last camp, it’s going to be hard on the coaching staff to not keep him on their NHL team. And if he’s not up here, he’s down in Hershey and getting adjusted to pro hockey. I think we’re going to see Andrew playing NHL games sooner rather than later.”
Cristall was one of the final cuts from the Capitals’ Opening Night roster in 2024 after playing in four preseason games and tying for the team lead in scoring with three points (2g, 1a). Despite his impressive stretch of exhibition games, the Caps had to send him back to junior as he was ineligible to play in the AHL due to the NHL-CHL transfer agreement.
After his ultra-successful final WHL season, Cristall was sent to the Bears to serve as a playoff black ace for the second straight year. Although his time in Hershey was brief, the stint allowed Capitals representatives to gain an in-person view of the 20-year-old winger’s physical growth. Cristall was measured at 5-foot-9 and 167 pounds at the 2023 NHL Draft, and according to a CHL measurement taken last fall, has since grown to at least 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.
“I know the reports from Hershey when he was down for kind of the end of the season, the playoff push were really positive,” Patrick said.
Patrick was also asked if Cristall’s incredible arsenal of skills with the puck and his innate playmaking ability lend more to a jump straight to the NHL from junior rather than playing games in the AHL. While still full of skilled players, the AHL tends to be a physical, slower-paced league.
“I don’t know. I think it’s a hard adjustment for any young player,” Patrick said. “It takes a really special player to step in seamlessly. But he’s a really intelligent player and, like you said, really skilled, which is a huge benefit for a guy coming into an NHL situation. It’s more understanding of time and space, the pace of the game, how quickly you need to execute your plays, and sometimes that takes some time.”
The Capitals are still focused on getting younger this summer, and Cristall could benefit from that strategy heading into training camp. Four of the team’s regular forwards from this past season, Lars Eller, Anthony Beauvillier, Andrew Mangiapane, and Taylor Raddysh, are set to become unrestricted free agents on Tuesday.
Cristall will come to camp and battle with other prospects, including Ivan Miroshnichenko, Bogdan Trineyev, Henrik Rybinski, and Ilya Protas, to fill whatever holes are left on the club’s NHL roster.
