How former Spokane Chief Andrew Cristall, one tooth short, could soon be filling a role for the Caps

Andrew Cristall arrived at Washington Capitals development camp with a missing front tooth. It was knocked out when he took a high stick to the face during a game last season. The forward has a removable denture to cover up the gap. That makes his parents happy, at least.

But really, the 20-year-old likes the look.

“[Alex Ovechkin] doesn’t wear one, so I don’t need to wear one,” Cristall said.

Cristall, a second-round pick in 2023, arrived at his third development camp with one fewer tooth but one more year of experience. He is coming off an electric season for the Spokane Chiefs in the Western Hockey League. Big things could be on the horizon now. Big changes, too.

His fellow prospects have taken notice. Cristall’s roommate for development camp, 2024 first-round pick Terik Parascak, said he sees Cristall as a leader. Parascak follows Cristall’s knowledge of the schedule and routines. Lynden Lakovic, Washington’s first-round pick this year, said he looked forward to meeting Cristall during the week of practice.

Regardless of whether he makes the Capitals’ roster, Cristall will move to the United States this year to, at minimum, play with the Hershey Bears, Washington’s affiliate in the American Hockey League.

He’ll leave his home in Canada and billet families behind and, for the first time, find a place on his own. Part of development camp is teaching prospects in their late teens and early 20s to be adults. Cristall said the team had a cooking class during the week. Chefs taught Cristall and others to make a pasta dish with chicken, vegetables and bacon as well as how to cook steak in a pan.

For all the expectations Cristall has faced, he still remembers that he’s learning to be an adult playing professional hockey for the first time, too. And he may be as close as he’s ever been to cracking the NHL roster.

Cristall has played in the WHL since 2020. After nearly making Washington’s roster at training camp last season, Cristall returned to the Kelowna Rockets and went on to lead the WHL with 132 points, including 48 goals and 84 assists. After a midseason trade to the Chiefs, Cristall helped lead the team to the WHL Championship Series.

“If he has a camp like last camp, it’s going to be hard for the coaching staff to not keep him on their NHL team,” Capitals General Manager Chris Patrick said recently.

Patrick said if not in Washington, Cristall will still get his biggest jump in experience with pro hockey by playing consistently in Hershey. He said Cristall’s skills aren’t an issue; his readiness is based on how he continues to improve on his skating and adjustments to the speed of the NHL.

He said Cristall will be in the NHL “sooner rather than later.”

Cristall has long been praised for his ability with the puck but has been maligned for his skating. Capitals skating coaches say his testing numbers are trending positively, and Cristall said he plans to spend the summer working to improve more.

“It’s gone up every year, which is a great thing,” Cristall said of his skating test results. “Hopefully, it can keep going up as my career goes on. I feel good. So it’s nice to have the data back it.”

Cristall was briefly assigned to Hershey at the end of last season during the Bears’ playoff run. Although he didn’t play, he was there to experience a new group that he could very likely be a part of this season.

Cristall and Ivan Miroshnichenko appear as the two most likely young forwards to make a jump following departures this offseason, including forward Taylor Raddysh. Miroshnichenko, 21, the Capitals’ first-round pick in 2022, has played in 39 NHL games over the past two seasons.

“We’re going to need those guys,” Patrick said. “Even though the cap is going up, you still need young players that are on relatively affordable deals. So we’re going to need those guys to hopefully step up and be big parts of the team in the near future.”