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

[FourQuarters]

Hard working get reward tonight.

 

[WADEugottaBELAKthat]

Fell a little off at the end of the year?

Any Kelowna/W fans able to chime in a few words? Don’t think he plays with Tij..?

 

[FourQuarters]

Fell a little off at the end of the year?

Any Kelowna/W fans able to chime in a few words? Don’t think he plays with Tij..?

He isn't on his best last month. But he is trying to play more physical recently, forecheck to get the puck, or battle around the board. Tij's line is hot now, they're Kelowna's first line now, so coach won't separate them to help Cristall to collect points.

 

[Kuz]

Fell a little off at the end of the year?

Any Kelowna/W fans able to chime in a few words? Don’t think he plays with Tij..?

Not that much, but 4 points in his last 4 is under his pace where he should have had around 7 points, but he had a 7 point game before that. So 11 in his last 5 who actually is more than Tij who have 9 in the same 5 games.

He's been around 5th the wholse season behind Firkus and Heidt-Funk from Prince George. With a stronger finish he could have been around Heidt and Berkly, but looks like he wont finish higher than 5th in scoring and have 3 guys who might pass him.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

1 goal, 3 primary apples

 

[Cush]

 

[EXTRAS]

Did cristall or iginla look better this year?

 

[Mrb1p]

Did cristall or iginla look better this year?

Iginla. Cristall didn't look as good as he did last year IMO.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Did cristall or iginla look better this year?

Cristall. 27 more points in 2 less games.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Did cristall or iginla look better this year?

Cristall did

They are going to put up a gross amount of points next year in the WHL combined

 

[57special]

Cristall was fighting an injury for a while there, wasn't he? I'm not a big fan of his game, but he sure can rack up the points.

 

[trick9]

Did cristall or iginla look better this year?

Cristall.

Everything the Rockets do go through him. There was a stretch early on when he was hurt and the team looked like shit.

 

[Lou Sassole]

All reports from development camp say his skating has improved markedly.

 

[Cush]

 

[slumpy43]

How has he looked at rookie camp?

 

[Cush]

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

He's been the best 2023 draft pick in this game, which is impressive with Michkov playing.

 

[crab]

Its only preseason but he has looked really good against Philly so far.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

His skating and quickness are notably improved. He looks much stronger as well.

He's gonna be a whale of a player IMO. A lot of Claude Giroux in his game. Could have easily had 2-3 more points last night, and did so while playing a really complete game.

I still can't believe he fell to 40. I get that he was a smaller guy who wasn't a great skater, but the latter is often pretty easy to fix (and it seems like he is well on his way there). And he doesn't look all that small anymore - he was listed at ~167 at the start of his draft year, measured 5'9.5 175 at the combine, and it looks like he's now listed at 5'10 183 on hockeydb. He looked pretty thick out there.

I had him 11th but that may even end up too low for him. He could realistically end up a top 3-5 offensive player from 2023. If he goes back to Kelowna this year (and stays there), he'll almost definitely break Brett Maclean's franchise record 375 career points, and there's a good chance he becomes the first WHL player in the 2000s to break the 400 career point threshold. He's currently at 280 career points - if he's able to play ~55 games I think he does it.

 

[Lou Sassole]

For what it's worth:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1837978478471192618

 

[Fraser28]

His skating and quickness are notably improved. He looks much stronger as well.

He's gonna be a whale of a player IMO. A lot of Claude Giroux in his game. Could have easily had 2-3 more points last night, and did so while playing a really complete game.

I still can't believe he fell to 40. I get that he was a smaller guy who wasn't a great skater, but the latter is often pretty easy to fix (and it seems like he is well on his way there). And he doesn't look all that small anymore - he was listed at ~167 at the start of his draft year, measured 5'9.5 175 at the combine, and it looks like he's now listed at 5'10 183 on hockeydb. He looked pretty thick out there.

I had him 11th but that may even end up too low for him. He could realistically end up a top 3-5 offensive player from 2023. If he goes back to Kelowna this year (and stays there), he'll almost definitely break Brett Maclean's franchise record 375 career points, and there's a good chance he becomes the first WHL player in the 2000s to break the 400 career point threshold. He's currently at 280 career points - if he's able to play ~55 games I think he does it.

I remember being shocked Chicago passed on him in the second round. An added bonus would’ve been that he is also friends with Bedard from their childhood days.

 

[Garbageyuk]

I still can't believe he fell to 40. I get that he was a smaller guy who wasn't a great skater, but the latter is often pretty easy to fix (and it seems like he is well on his way there).

No, I don’t think that’s true at all. That’s a bit of a survivorship bias thing going on, i.e., the guys who do make it have fixed their skating. A great many prospects never improve it.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

No, I don’t think that’s true at all. That’s a bit of a survivorship bias thing going on, i.e., the guys who do make it have fixed their skating. A great many prospects never improve it.

That's why I said "often" and not "always". We we've seen countless examples of players making significant skating improvements from age 17 to 23.

 

[Garbageyuk]

That's why I said "often" and not "always". We we've seen countless examples of players making significant skating improvements from age 17 to 23.

Again, that isn’t true. I don’t think it happens often. The guys you notice and pay attention to are the guys who made it because they fixed their skating. It’s much more the exception. And it isn’t “pretty easy to fix” either, otherwise every prospect would do it.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Again, that isn’t true. I don’t think it happens often. The guys you notice and pay attention to are the guys who made it because they fixed their skating. It’s much more the exception. And it isn’t “pretty easy to fix” either, otherwise every prospect would do it.

Often - Frequently; many times

We have frequently seen players who have developed from poor skaters to average skaters (or better). I think it's actually very rare that players don't improve their skating from age 17 to 23.