CapitalsCupReality
It’s Go Time!!
- Feb 27, 2002
- 66,233
- 21,226
GDT: 2023 Caps NHL Draft Thread
- Thread starter Langway
- Start date
Silky mitts
It’s yours boys and girls and babes let’s go!
- Mar 9, 2004
- 4,830
- 3,906
He cross checked Carlson right in the Carlson. I always preferred when teams dressed guys like Reaves or Russ Johnston against the Caps, like they weren’t playing their most talented players. Which only makes guys like the Tkachuks and Wilson more valuable since your tone setter isn’t a liability.
- Jun 25, 2018
- 1,046
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Man I hate the Canes. Pretty easily my most disliked franchise in the NHL.
Corby78
65 - 10 - 20
Not acting that way at all. It doesn’t matter what the Russian does at this point. He wasn’t available at 8. Unless someone who knows says we had a legit shot to move up and passed it up, than he has no bearing on how we did this draft.
Are we going to say we failed because we didn’t go get the kid from Michigan or Bedard????
- Jun 25, 2018
- 1,046
- 1,947
ClevelandCapsfan
Registered User
- May 24, 2021
- 2,141
- 1,744
SecretaryofDefense5
Registered User
trick9
Registered User
- Jun 2, 2013
- 12,562
- 5,705
CapitalsCupReality
It’s Go Time!!
- Feb 27, 2002
- 66,233
- 21,226
Best part of that….decision-making can be improved on with good coaching….and maturity.Here's TSLH's *extensive* scouting report for Cristall, for anyone interested. It doesn't feature fancy stats or charts (it's much more eye-test oriented), but the person watched him a lot. It's... not glowing. But whatever!
Andrew Cristall:
Cristall is quite possibly one of the greatest enigmas of the entire 2023 draft. Appearing inside several top 5 throughout the season, he was also ranked towards the end of the first round by an equivalent number of people. If his talent does not leave anyone perplexed, his efficiency on the ice, leaves many uncertain.
Cristall is first and foremost an offensive player who advocates a spectacular and ‘Fancy’ style of play. His puck handling is excellent and easily rivals the best in this draft. That being said, he too often fell for me into the category of players who bring flash, but lack substance. I detect in him a certain lack of maturity in this regard when he tries to display all his abilities, without necessarily choosing the opportune moments.
It happens regularly to see Cristall bait the first player towards him and manage to beat him with a deke, the problem is that he will skate directly into the 2nd player and lose the puck. Although his handling of the puck is excellent, his plays often do not materialize.
Often within a quality, one can observe other attributes of the player that come to work in conjunction with the primary asset. In the case of Cristall, I have not often seen in his handling of the puck an ability to adapt to the pressure that has arisen on him. The vast majority of the time, he will take advantage of junior defensemen who will play the puck rather than the body. For me, he doesn’t have the explosion in his lateral skating stride to avoid the big defensemen in the NHL who will play the body instead.
When I talk about inefficiency and profusion of turnovers, here is an example:
In overtime, Kelowna has a power play (4 against 3), Cristall is at the top of the left circles with the puck.
He will look to fake a shot, change his angle to the outside and maraud with the puck, all that to end up nailed in the corner of the rink by the defender.
All this while he had all the space and time in the world !
Cristall’s playmaking talents are often sold as the main draw of his offensive game, yet that’s not what I’ve observed over the season.
Of course, he shows good vision and is able to orchestrate some good offensive sequences, but for me, the frequency of these plays does not manage to compensate for the number of turnovers he commits.
He is dangerous on the power plays when he moves in possession of the puck since he can shoot from anywhere, he draws defensive coverage on him.
Similar to what was apparent with his puck handling, Cristall sometimes has difficulty properly gauging when the pressure is closing on his passing options, it has happened time and time again to see him pass to a teammate he believed to be alone to finally see that he wasn’t.
I personally find him more dangerous as a shooter. His wrist shot is quite impressive. The puck hits the target with great velocity.
The quality of his hands comes out a lot in the way he uses his shot, he is able to raise the puck from the backhand, even being very close to the goalkeeper. It remains, however, when he wins the center of the ice that he is at his most dangerous. It is mainly on the powerplay that he will be able to take advantage of a static defensive coverage, we see him exuding confidence and challenging his opponents. He has the puck handling as well as the passing options at his disposal to sell his intentions to his opponents and that’s why he is so dangerous.
Unfortunately, Cristall was playing on the left on the power play, being left-handed himself, he did not have the luxury of being able to win the center of the offensive zone on his forehand. He has, however, developed a kind of shot all his own, as he will sell the wrist shot from the left side, then change the angle to the outside, step to the side and unleash a shot without having the defenseman in front of him to block the shot. What is impressive is how good the shot is despite the fact that he is far from an ideal body position to make such a shot. Cristall’s balance on his skates is still impressive.
He uses this kind of shot quite regularly, the problem is that even if it’s impressive, he changes his angle to go outside rather than to attack inside and also, in the train of thought that with his hands, when it works, it’s taking advantage of a cheating junior goaltender. I highly doubt that will work in the NHL.
Cristall’s decision-making seems to be a constant that emerges within each of his individual abilities. I’ve scratched my head several times seeing some of his plays, not to mention some execution errors on a few trivial plays.
He is the typical case of a player who tries to do too much and mismanages his risk-taking, for example, going in front of his net with the puck when he already has a player chasing him. He plays quite individually.
One thing that constantly resurfaces with Cristall as well is that he constantly needs to slow down the play when he wins the offensive zone. This causes some concerns as to whether he can be as good offensively when the game is played at a high pace. Also, he doesn’t have the physical strength to protect the puck and he doesn’t have the acceleration in his skating to draw a player in one direction and explode in another.
Not only does Cristall have to slow down the game, he also has this annoying habit of constantly turning his back to the play when he has the puck. He does this kind of play to assess if he doesn’t have any options that come up in the 2nd wave, but the number of times that translates into a turnover….
We have an example here
(Cristall is in white at the top of the screen, in possession of the puck)
The worst thing is that just before, he had a clean look to send his teammate on a breakaway !
It is a play that he performs several times per game!
Even in the neutral zone when he has the puck with the other team backchecking hard, he has to slow down the play, navigate, handle the puck, to finally pass it out of reach to a teammate or send the puck in an open-space in the offensive zone while his teammates had to slow down to avoid being offside. The worst thing is that it happened several times to see Cristall do this kind of play and stop skating afterwards.
This is also an aspect of his game in which he has been very inconsistent and which also raises concerns, his involvement and his work ethic.
At his best, he plays with a chip on his shoulder, looks hungry, backcheck and finishes his checks. But on other nights, his compete-level is just appalling. He’s nowhere to be found in the defensive zone, cheats offensively and if you give him a pass that’s a little out of reach, he doesn’t even skate to chase the puck. His defensive game is often non-existent.
It is not only defensively that Cristall’s involvement left something to be desired during the season, his desire to engage the body was also one.
There is an example here: the opposing team loses control of the puck in the neutral zone and one of Cristall’s teammate goes to recover the puck. Cristall has the center of the ice and he has an advantageous position on the defenseman. The interior is conceded to him and he could get a very good chance to score.
Instead, he looks right away to get to the other side behind the defender.
He could have physically competed for a chance, but he didn’t. Of course going to huddle behind the defender for a 2 on 1 was not a bad idea, it even shows the player’s awareness of his own weaknesses (acceleration and physical strength), which I myself consider to be a quality. But in this case, the play closed on him and he was never a viable passing option, and this is just one of many examples of similar plays.
It’s very common that when he skates to the corner with the puck, he just sends the puck towards the net, simply losing possession for his team.
As for his skating, Cristall moves well overall, but for a player of his size, he lacks separation speed.
I don’t really like to see him as an option in transition since he doesn’t have that necessary speed and also because he slows down the game too often and plays in an individualistic way.
Cristall demonstrates good agility on the ice, we often see him using the ’10-2′ technique where he skates heel-to-heel to make space and to mask his intentions. The problem is that in junior he is given more space than he will get in the NHL and he does not have the physical strength to protect the puck with his body.
The analysis may seem quite scathing to some, but it should be noted that I have no personal agenda, I only share what I observe in my viewing. I agree that Cristall has quite a talent and he definitely has the ability to make those who rank him too low look bad. That being said, by virtue of all the questions I have about his game, I can hardly see myself recommending his selection to my general manager. A player’s faults are to be taken into consideration, and in the case of Cristall, we are not at a single flaw to determine his eventual success in the NHL or not, there is simply too much variable in the equation to make me rank him too high.
Numbers of games watched: 28
Langway
In den Wolken
- Jul 7, 2006
- 32,930
- 10,072
Re-entry player. Meh.
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Rayquaza64
McMichael>McDavid
CapitalsCupReality
It’s Go Time!!
- Feb 27, 2002
- 66,233
- 21,226
Carlzner
Registered User
Seems like a guy whose potential is a grinder that can step up on a higher line for a few games without looking out of place.
Fine with that kind of pick after their first two selections.
Fine with that kind of pick after their first two selections.
Carlzner
Registered User
ChaosLord
Registered User
- Jan 16, 2010
- 5,200
- 1,194
"Some", not "tons", come on. You are clearly at a disadvantage when you are a smaller player in the size-happy NHL. Only the best of the best -- guys like Martin St Louis and Pavel Bure -- survive. Not sure what Benson's ultimate fate will be.
Melkor
Registered User
If you're about to pick an overager who can't even produce in the minors I think you better trade the pick for a pick a year later or a prospect from another team . Don't get the point in taking guys the market has a shit ton of on a yearly basis
Corby78
65 - 10 - 20
If you would have told me two days ago we would draft Leonard and Cristall, I would have taken that and ran. Not sure about Thomas but very happy with this draft right now
SecretaryofDefense5
Registered User
Agreed. I feel like you need to use these later picks for bigger swings but alrighty.
Carlzner
Registered User
True, can't see any benefit from developing cheap bottom 6 talent as opposed to overpaying for them in FA
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