Andrew Cristall is a hockey nerd just like Dylan Strome: ‘Watching the best players play hockey, it helps a lot’

Washington Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall considers himself a hockey addict. The team’s 2023 second-round draft pick revealed that watching every NHL game is “his biggest hobby.” He described his nightly habit of gathering with his WHL teammates to study how the pros play.

“I love the game. I’m, you know, a hockey junkie. I’m always looking at who’s winning and, you know, standings and things like that,” he explained to Mike Vogel during an episode of the “Break the Ice” podcast released Sunday. “Once the games started rolling at four o’clock (Pacific Time) in the NHL, it’s kind of all the boys got together and, you know, maybe sit on the couch and just kind of watch the games throughout the night and kind of talk about it.”

Cristall split the 2024-25 season with the Kelowna Rockets and Spokane Chiefs. He added, as he told RMNB in May, that his game-watching habits throughout the year allowed him to follow the Caps and captain Alex Ovechkin’s chase to break Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record.

“I was super excited… I was, you know, obviously keeping really close tabs on how they were doing. Obviously, the chase was pretty incredible to watch, how he did that,” he said, describing the morning he witnessed Ovechkin scored goal No. 895.

“I remember the time he broke it. I think it was like a matinee game,” he recalled. “So, it was like nine o’clock in the morning for me on a Sunday after, after I played the night before… I set my alarm to get up and then watch that. So, yeah, it was just a pretty, pretty fun year to watch the Caps… It was a blast.”

Cristall, who could make the Capitals’ opening night roster this season out of training camp, compared himself to centerman Dylan Strome when it came to his hockey obsession.

“I feel like, like, Stromer, when I was here, he knew all the stats of everything, and it was pretty cool to see that. So, I feel like I’m, you know, pretty similar to him in that way,” he said.

Vogel described Strome, the Caps’ 29-goal-scorer this past season, as someone who could “recount shifts, plays, everything” from games around the league all year. Counter to that, he joked a veteran like TJ Oshie never “watched a game he wasn’t playing in” but praised Cristall as someone who’s “got a little bit of both those things” in his personality.

“I think, you know, that helps as well with getting better just watching, you know, the best players play hockey, it helps a lot. So my nights are usually filled with hockey,” Cristall said.

Absorbing as much hockey as he can in his free time has been a life-long habit of Cristall’s. He believes becoming a student of the game gave him the advantage of incorporating aspects of pro players he admired growing up into his own playing style.

“I think growing up, it’s just watching a lot of hockey kind of like I do now,” he said. “I think I take stuff out of lots of players games that I kind of want to implement, and then I kind of go on the ice and try those things, whether it’s in a practice or I just go out there to top on open ice by myself and do those things.”

Despite being an impressive forward talent, Cristall actually admired several defensive legends of the game as a kid and tried to emulate their skills.

“I was a pretty big Canucks fan, growing up being from Vancouver, and just watching the Sedins and how they worked the puck and worked well together. It was just magnificent to watch,” he elaborated. “I think they always knew where they were, and I just loved their give and goes and how they played hockey.”

Current league stars like Nikita Kucherov and Mitch Marner also made the 2005-born prospect’s list but after arriving in Washington two summers ago, he has a special appreciation for a couple recent departures from the Caps organization.

“Obviously getting drafted here there’s a couple guys like Oshie, you mentioned, and then [Nicklas] Backstrom, just how their brains worked, and how Oshie just always competed and got to the net,” Cristall praised. “I think there’s a lot of things that I could take out of that too.”

The 20-year-old winger credits his best friend Connor Bedard and roommate Kent Johnson for giving him a glimpse into NHL life. Cristall said he continues to pepper them with questions.

“I’m always trying to pick their brain a little bit. You don’t want to be, you know, too nudgy,” he said. “But at the end of the day, like the guys that I’m with, Connor, and Kent Johnson lives in my house, who plays in Columbus, they’re always kind of giving advice, and, you know, helping me to kind of see things, or what they see at the pro level in the NHL.”

Bedard, the first overall selection at the 2023 NHL Draft, and Cristall have notably been friends since they were five years old. Johnson was the fifth overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.

“I feel like I’m pretty lucky to be in my situation where, you know, maybe I get a little bit of a heads up on how things worked and, you know, what they did to kind of see some improvement,” Cristall reflected. “They’re such nice people to kind of, you know, help me out and not keep any of that to themselves. So, pretty grateful.”