Andrew Cristall has been a major surprise for the Washington Capitals at this year’s Training Camp. The 19-year-old winger, playing his second post-draft season, is still with the club less than a week before Opening Night rosters are due, and it sounds like he could even outlast that October 7 deadline.
Due to the NHL-CHL transfer agreement, Cristall has two options for where he’ll play his hockey during the 2024-25 campaign: in the NHL with the Capitals or back in the WHL with the Kelowna Rockets. If he does stick around in the NHL, he’ll be able to play nine games for Washington before the clock starts on his entry-level contract and it will no longer slide to next year.
The Capitals practiced at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday. After beating the Blue Jackets on Monday, they stayed in the area for team-building activities. After their skate, head coach Spencer Carbery spoke about the team’s plans for their young prospect and how they might use that 10-game, entry-level slide rule to their advantage.
“[We’re considering it], for sure, because of the camp he’s had,” Carbery said. “He’s earned the opportunity to continue to be a part of the team and continue to push to try to make the team. That’s why he’s here still. He’s had a great camp. He’s put himself in the spot that maybe, if you were looking before camp started, probably didn’t have him slotted to potentially make the team, thought he’d go back to Kelowna and have another phenomenal year. But he’s done a good job thus far through camp and earned an opportunity to try to make the team.”
While Carbery seemingly has his first, second, and fourth lines set, the team’s third line is still being evaluated. Hendrix Lapierre appears to be locked in as the line’s center, with Aliaksei Protas flanking him to his right, but who takes hold of that left-wing spot is still to be determined.
Sonny Milano played on the line against the Blue Jackets after receiving a direct callout from Carbery about his slow preseason performance. Milano didn’t do much in response, as he neither got on the scoresheet nor recorded a shot on goal.
“The third line is a little bit of a work in progress, seeing where we’re going to go with that with Lappy and Pro,” Carbery said. “Sonny has played there a little bit. Is it Miro? That’s kinda the spot that we’ve been eyeballing and trying to evaluate.”
At practice on Wednesday, Cristall took on the role and may get a chance on the line against the Boston Bruins in Washington’s final game of the preseason on Saturday. He has recorded a point in all three prior preseason games he’s played in this fall.
“Yeah, we may look at [Cristall],” Carbery said. “We haven’t made a decision on Boston and who will play that final preseason game, but we looked at that today.”
The Capitals recently took advantage of the entry-level slide rule with Lapierre at the beginning of the 2021-22 season. Lapierre played in his first six NHL games that year before being returned to the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan, avoiding the burning of the first year of his contract.
However, once a player is sent back to their junior team, they can’t be recalled to play in the NHL or get their feet wet in the AHL until that junior season concludes.
Washington is down to 28 healthy skaters after returning 2024 first-round draft selection Terik Parascak to the WHL’s Prince George Cougars on Tuesday. NHL teams carry a maximum of 23 active players during the regular season, so the Capitals must make five more cuts by Monday.
Cristall joins Jakub Vrana, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Mike Sgarbossa, Dylan McIlrath, Ethan Bear, and Alex Alexeyev in the battle for the final available spots. Goaltender Hunter Shepard is also still on the roster but will, in all likelihood, be waived so he can return to the AHL’s Hershey Bears if he passes through waivers.
