Tantalizing yet divisive: Andrew Cristall is motivated to 'prove people wrong'

BUFFALO - After a whirlwind eight-hour day of interviewing with prospective employers, undergoing a balance test, and answering reporters' questions, Andrew Cristall is asked if he'd like to watch a few clips from his highlight reel.

"Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely," a grinning Cristall replies from his seat inside a Marriott hotel restaurant. It's June 1 and the NHL's annual scouting combine is well underway for Cristall and roughly 100 of his 2023 draft classmates.

Cristall's eager because he's an extrovert obsessed with the sport of hockey. Dissecting clips of his finest moments is right in his wheelhouse. Also, it's a short break from a week's worth of discussions about his flaws as a player.

The first clip begins with Cristall, an 18-year-old left-winger for the WHL's Kelowna Rockets, skating through the neutral zone with possession of the puck. Between him and the goalie is one defender, who he promptly turnstiles:

"His stick is close to the puck," Cristall says of the backpedaling defenseman, "and I know he's going to look to poke it soon. So, I push the puck out to my left side, then slap his stick a little bit to prevent him from getting it. I know from there he's going to cross over, which means I've got an opportunity to put the puck through his triangle, go in on a breakaway, and score."

That slap of the defender's stick, which is indiscernible on video, is a subtle yet brilliant move. It puts the defender on his heels and allows Cristall to waltz into the middle lane of the ice. The puck's in the back of the net seconds later.

The sequence showcases Cristall's trademark intelligence and creativity.

Rockets teammate Caden Price says Cristall's skill level and manipulation techniques are "absurd." Connor Bedard, the presumptive No. 1 pick and one of Cristall's closest friends, calls his former minor hockey teammate "probably the smartest hockey player I've gotten to play with." Cristall puts it succinctly: "I make reads some other guys can't."

The sequence is also the kind of highlight that could split a room of hockey people. Critics might scoff at it, insisting Cristall is simply feasting on inferior competition and that he'll never replicate such a flashy sequence in the pros. Supporters might argue that Cristall can translate his skill set to the NHL, outsmart pros, and repair his biggest weaknesses.

Unlike the majority of potential first-round picks, there's a lack of consensus with Cristall, both behind closed doors among scouts and in the public discourse. Arguably 2023's most divisive prospect, he's ranked 13th, 24th, 25th, 35th, and 68th by some of the most popular NHL draft analysts. Is Cristall worthy of a top-15 pick? Or is he a Day 2 selection?

Let's stick with the strengths for a moment.

Cristall's puck skills are exceptional. His craftiness in tight quarters, a byproduct of running through countless small-area drills as a young player in Vancouver, makes him difficult to contain. Armed with both a hard, accurate shot and seam-finding passing chops, he's a dual threat in the offensive zone.

"If the pass is there, I'm 100% going to make that pass to create a goal. Whatever the best option, that's the option I'm going to choose," says Cristall, who finished sixth in the WHL with 95 points (39 goals, 56 assists) despite missing 14 games in the middle of the season due to a quad injury.

Cristall grew up adoring legendary Canucks forwards Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Nowadays, he models his game after Mitch Marner, the magician-like winger for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Cristall's attracted to Marner's evasiveness and patience with the puck - how he's capable of controlling the pace of the game.

Then there are Cristall's many "Michigan" attempts, which are less Marner and more Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks. The behind-the-net, lacrosse-style scoring play combines Cristall's hands, creativity, and swagger.

"I've never seen a player try the 'Michigan' more often than him. Realistically, it drives our ownership mental," Rockets head coach Kris Mallette says with a laugh. "But it's the new way. You look at Zegras, you look at other young guys, it's just what they do. Some of the stuff he does in practice - calling his shot, then going in on the goalie and making it look easy - is impressive. He works hard, challenges himself to be better, and is a fun guy to be around."

OK, onto the weaknesses: Cristall is small (5-foot-9.5, 175 pounds), and his skating is considered average for a major-junior player. He'll put up points and get you out of your seat with some puck wizardry, sure, but small forwards who don't skate well and aren't known for their compete level rarely blossom into longtime NHLers. At least that's how the thinking goes in some circles.

"For smaller players without high-end skating ability, you'll have a really hard time finding a spot in the top six of a forward group," says Chris Peters, who covers the prospect world for FloHockey. "The most common thing I hear about Cristall from people working for teams is that if you draft him, you're getting a one-way player, a guy who fits into very few options in your lineup."

Peters adds that Cristall could theoretically evolve into a more complete player by focusing on his defense. However, nobody's currently projecting him to be a shutdown forward, and bigger, more athletic players usually fill that role. "That's the other thing teams will consider with Cristall: Where does he go from here? What's his trajectory? How long will he take to develop?"

Still, Peters is at least a half-believer, as evidenced by Cristall landing 24th on FloHockey's final ranking of all 2023 prospects. It's impossible to ignore the gaudy offensive tools and the points he accumulated on a relatively weak Kelowna squad. "Real boom-bust potential with drafting a player like Cristall this high, but the hockey sense wins the day here for me," Peters wrote.

"Do I want to miss on this?" Mallette, the Rockets coach, says of the potential downside of passing on Cristall in next Wednesday's first round. "You don't want to be that team that two, three years down the road is missing out on a very, very special player. So that's what's intriguing but also what's scary, right? Because you never know with young hockey players. It's the unknown."

To Cristall's credit, he's doing what he can to make it less of an unknown.

On top of bulking up through strength training, Cristall's worked with skating coach Barb Aidelbaum multiple times a week since his season ended in late April. Cristall notes that he needs to be more on his toes than his heels when he's skating. With better mechanics and a stronger lower body, his stride should start generating extra power. He's doing this work in concert with physiotherapy, with the off-ice treatment aiming to bring greater fluidity to his movements and, in turn, lengthen his stride on the ice.

Those close to Cristall praise him for being an optimistic, competitive person.

"If you have a plan, you can come to a solution," he says of his mindset.

Cristall was told he wouldn't be effective once he was old enough for body-checking hockey because of his size - yet he was and exploded offensively. He was told he wouldn't play junior hockey because of his size and skating - yet he did and exploded offensively. Now, he's being told he might not play in the NHL.

"It's something I use to motivate myself," Cristall says from his Marriott seat, long day over. "I want to prove people wrong and prove myself right."

John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).