F Andrew Cristall - Kelowna Rockets, WHL (2023, 40th, WSH)

[LeProspector]

So he's a bit like you?

So you’re just going to throw personal jabs, flaming me and not engage In a conversation?

You holding Cristalls pocket or something?

 

[Fantomas]

So you’re just going to throw personal jabs, flaming me and not engage In a conversation?

You holding Cristalls pocket or something?

You served it to me on a platter. I had to do it.

I will watch for Cristall's body language next time. Peace out.

 

[Fantomas]

I don't know what Andrew Cristall is like as a person or as a teammate. He's probably a lovely human being (don't sue me, lol).

But I can sort of imagine him being a d-bag, because I can't get over his resemblance to Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. You know, one of the assholiest movie characters of all time.

 

[majormajor]

I listened to a lot of scouts talk about why they soured on Cristall last Spring, the bad playoff and underwhelming U18 was a big part of it. I don't recall anyone mentioning an issue with how he relates to teammates. Not saying the suggestion is false, I just hope we don't make up some slander here.

I don't know what Andrew Cristall is like as a person or as a teammate. He's probably a lovely human being (don't sue me, lol).

But I can sort of imagine him being a d-bag, because I can't get over his resemblance to Jesse Eisenberg playing Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. You know, one of the assholiest movie characters of all time.

We should try harder to avoid stereotyping people based on their facial features. You're imagining someone is a D-bag because of their resemblance to an actor who played an a-hole. I know you're not suggesting he's actually like that but it feels weird that this is all associations with commonly Jewish facial features.

 

[Fantomas]

We should try harder to avoid stereotyping people based on their facial features. You're imagining someone is a D-bag because of their resemblance to an actor who played an a-hole. I know you're not suggesting he's actually like that but it feels weird that this is all associations with commonly Jewish facial features.

I am imagining that you're a D-bag right now and I've never seen your features.

 

[HTFN]

So you’re just going to throw personal jabs, flaming me and not engage In a conversation?

You holding Cristalls pocket or something?

You just keep saying "take a look at it" and providing nothing about what actually makes you sour on him. What's he do? How's he talk? How do his teammates take it? You gave nothing and then got immediately salty when somebody asked why you're so personally invested in something that nobody else is reporting.

So... show us something or explain it, or maybe wait and keep it to yourself until it comes up on its own.

 

[LeProspector]

You just keep saying "take a look at it" and providing nothing about what actually makes you sour on him. What's he do? How's he talk? How do his teammates take it? You gave nothing and then got immediately salty when somebody asked why you're so personally invested in something that nobody else is reporting.

So... show us something or explain it, or maybe wait and keep it to yourself until it comes up on its own.

It did come up on it’s own, I brought it up.

Seems to me someone can’t handle someone actually evaluating a prospect. There is always negatives with prospects. People just don’t like to hear them.

 

[HTFN]

It did come up on it’s own, I brought it up.

Seems to me someone can’t handle someone actually evaluating a prospect. There is always negatives with prospects. People just don’t like to hear them.

Because you aren't saying anything. "watch how he does X" is not actually asserting anything, it's just you saying "he has an attitude issue and you'd know it too if you watched it" but you don't talk about anything he's doing. Is he sulking, berating people, quitting early? What? Back your shit up or wait for somebody with anything relating to connections to say "hey I think this guy might have attitude problems" because it sure didn't come up in the draft profile and so far you're basically the only guy saying it. That's not proof, that's you making an allegation and then hoping that once people start looking for it they'll develop a confirmation bias.

You need to bring more to the table here besides "I'm right, trust me" for anyone to take you seriously about this because you're the only one talking about it.

 

[Fantomas]

Because you aren't saying anything. "watch how he does X" is not actually asserting anything, it's just you saying "he has an attitude issue and you'd know it too if you watched it" but you don't talk about anything he's doing. Is he sulking, berating people, quitting early? What? Back your shit up or wait for somebody with anything relating to connections to say "hey I think this guy might have attitude problems" because it sure didn't come up in the draft profile and so far you're basically the only guy saying it. That's not proof, that's you making an allegation and then hoping that once people start looking for it they'll develop a confirmation bias.

You need to bring more to the table here besides "I'm right, trust me" for anyone to take you seriously about this because you're the only one talking about it.

I agree. Some people are way too liberal with the "attitude problems" smear against young athletes. It's a serious allegation of a very personal nature, and shouldn't be thrown around carelessly.

And this poster's language is vague. His allegations are full of weasel words, without clear, concrete reference to specific things that happened. It's not descriptive. For example he says "Take a look at him when he plays, specifically without the puck, his demeanour towards his teammates and how he handles himself."

Take a look at him and you will see, he basically says. But see what?

If he actually had solid grounds to accuse Cristall of something he would phrase it differently. He would say "I saw Cristall play an X amount of times and noticed that he did Y and Z and that concerns me." Y and Z being specific examples of behaviour.

If you accuse a player of being a bad egg, you better bring freaking receipts!

 

[HTFN]

I agree. Some people are way too liberal with the "attitude problems" smear against young athletes. It's a serious allegation of a very personal nature, and shouldn't be thrown around carelessly.

And this poster's language is vague. His allegations are full of weasel words, without clear, concrete reference to specific things that happened. It's not descriptive. For example he says "Take a look at him when he plays, specifically without the puck, his demeanour towards his teammates and how he handles himself."

Take a look at him and you will see, he basically says. But see what?

If he actually had solid grounds to accuse Cristall of something he would phrase it differently. He would say "I saw Cristall play an X amount of times and noticed that he did Y and Z and that concerns me." Y and Z being specific examples of behaviour.

If you accuse a player of being a bad egg, you better bring freaking receipts!

Exactly, and his only reply was to do a laugh emoji and back out because there are no receipts.

I gave some really easy prompts, like every basic attitude issue you can deal with. This seems more like a "the girl I liked had a crush on Cristall" grudge than any real, actual beef. Again, why would it not come up in the draft year? Why's Bedard, who knows he's going to be huge very early and doesn't seem to speak errantly, consistently talking up his buddy and playing with him voluntarily if he's an abusive teammate?

 

[LeProspector]

Exactly, and his only reply was to do a laugh emoji and back out because there are no receipts.

I gave some really easy prompts, like every basic attitude issue you can deal with. This seems more like a "the girl I liked had a crush on Cristall" grudge than any real, actual beef. Again, why would it not come up in the draft year? Why's Bedard, who knows he's going to be huge very early and doesn't seem to speak errantly, consistently talking up his buddy and playing with him voluntarily if he's an abusive teammate?

It did come up during his draft year, it’s why one of the highest scoring draft eligible junior players from the WHL of this millennium went in the second round. Keep up.

 

[HTFN]

It did come up during his draft year, it’s why one of the highest scoring draft eligible junior players from the WHL of this millennium went in the second round. Keep up.

You want to cite a source at all? He had skating concerns well documented and a question about how his style transforms for the NHL game as a result.

Those are all things you can see in scouting articles and videos. You want to locate me one with character issues? You haven't proven one thing, this is straight trolling at this point because you won't even say what the problem is besides "character issues"

 

[LeProspector]

You want to cite a source at all? He had skating concerns well documented and a question about how his style transforms for the NHL game as a result.

Those are all things you can see in scouting articles and videos. You want to locate me one with character issues? You haven't proven one thing, this is straight trolling at this point because you won't even say what the problem is besides "character issues"

All you have to do is watch him while he is on the ice to see it. His commitment to the game when the puck isn’t on his stick.

I have already said this In this thread, but you choose to ignore it, are you this kids dad or something?

 

[LesCanadiens]

It did come up during his draft year, it’s why one of the highest scoring draft eligible junior players from the WHL of this millennium went in the second round. Keep up.

I've never read anything like that about him (IE attitude problems), ever. And I've never heard anything like that either. (I live in Kelowna). So not sure where you're getting that from. If that's your opinion based on your personal observations, you're entitled to it. But here you're saying it is something that "has come up" before. I don't think it ever has.

It's been well documented that people DID question his skating and defensive work ethic. But hey, the latter can be said about most uber-skilled junior players.

Caps got an absolute steal of a pick simply based on his ceiling.

 

[LeProspector]

I've never read anything like that about him (IE attitude problems), ever. And I've never heard anything like that either. (I live in Kelowna). So not sure where you're getting that from. If that's your opinion based on your personal observations, you're entitled to it. But here you're saying it is something that "has come up" before. I don't think it ever has.

It's been well documented that people DID question his skating and defensive work ethic. But hey, the latter can be said about most uber-skilled junior players.

Caps got an absolute steal of a pick simply based on his ceiling.

A lot of things come up within NHL circles that the public never read/see until seasons later.

 

[landy92mack29]

Hey Jason Robertson has major attitude issues and that's why he fell to the same area in the draft too....wasn't the skating concerns and scouts simply over criticizing a weakness of a player. That's never happened before right? Playing with swagger/confidence like Cristall does doesn't equal attitude issues.

 

[HTFN]

All you have to do is watch him while he is on the ice to see it. His commitment to the game when the puck isn’t on his stick.

I have already said this In this thread, but you choose to ignore it, are you this kids dad or something?

And all you have to do is cite one thing from any of these NHL circles, or how you're a part of one, and this would all be really easy.

You just keep saying "just look" but can't even articulate what the problem is. Are you his girlfriend's dad or something?

 

[FourQuarters]

wow I just haven't looked at HFB for one day and there are so many arguments in this thread.
I've watched almost every game he's played in the last three years, so maybe I can talk about what I saw in the three season as you have said what you have seen.
TBH compared to some of his teammates who are very gentle, he's not the friendliest player to the rivals, sometime chirps, but I don't think it's a personality issue, it's just his personality. His teammates are willing to protect him and stand by him.
Defensive play has been pointed out as his problem since his D-1 year, but if you read Kelowna's coach's interview, that's partly because their strategy is using him as a offense threat. He needs to work on his defensive play, but his lack of defensive play has been adopted by the team, I don't think his teammates will complain after seeing him take some many long shift/double shift to help team score. Weakness isn't equal to "personality issue".
I'm not sure how many Kelowna's games you watched in this three seasons, but if you watched his D-1 season, you would know how much he has improved as a person, from the spoiled child of Novak and Dach, to the leader who carried the team on his shoulders and led the team in pursuit of victory. He's not the nicest person, but he's still young, he has time to learn and improve, be a better man. If every junior player is mature and humble as the oldest NHL guys, how boring the world will be.

 

[LesCanadiens]

In the Brad Lambert thread, someone said it'll be interesting to see where Lambert and Wright end-up considering they were considered the top prospects for their draft class for years.

I was thinking about Cristall and then Smith came to mind. To me, they seem like very similar players. High IQ, but rely almost exclusively on finesse, are slight in frame, not physical, and weak on D. It'll be interesting to see where they end-up. I'm not a big fan of Smith, so I wouldn't be surprised if Cristall turns out as good or even better than Smith.

 

[WADEugottaBELAKthat]

Andrew Cristall is going to relieve himself in every naysayers cheerios. There are always guys like Debrincat and Kucherov and Kaliyev who get the icky shakedown all the way down the draft boards and have to eat hate from the peanut gallery.

But look at the numbers. Nobody drafted ahead of him or after him (playing in the CHL last year) has done or is doing what Cristall has and is.

Not Sale. Not Barlow. Not Honzek. Not Dvorsky. Not Danielsen. Not Musty. Not anyone.

Until he busts out this guy has a star trajectory.

My 2 cents.

 

[wetcoast]

A lot of things come up within NHL circles that the public never read/see until seasons later.

Which one is it though the "watch him play and you will see it" or the " I made this up but I'm pretending to be an insider".

I actually thought that I might get an update on the guy here.

 

[Scintillating10]

He's having great start to year

 

[TLEH]

Andrew Cristall punched a ref and no one heard about it because I was the ref and I didn't tell anyone. No one saw.

 

[Fantomas]

Andrew Cristall is going to relieve himself in every naysayers cheerios.

I can picture him doing this.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

In the Brad Lambert thread, someone said it'll be interesting to see where Lambert and Wright end-up considering they were considered the top prospects for their draft class for years.

I was thinking about Cristall and then Smith came to mind. To me, they seem like very similar players. High IQ, but rely almost exclusively on finesse, are slight in frame, not physical, and weak on D. It'll be interesting to see where they end-up. I'm not a big fan of Smith, so I wouldn't be surprised if Cristall turns out as good or even better than Smith.

You have Smith all wrong. He skates significantly better and plays significantly better defense than Cristall.