Andrew Cristall has continued to absolutely tear the WHL apart this season. The 19-year-old winger racked up five primary points (1g, 4a) in the Kelowna Rockets’ 8-3 victory over the Vancouver Giants, giving him multi-point nights in all but two of his 14 games this season.
Cristall now has 38 points (11g, 27a) this year, third-best in the WHL, and has played at least eight fewer games than the two players ahead of him. His 2.71 point-per-game rate leads both the WHL and the CHL as a whole: no other player in any of the CHL’s three leagues has averaged over 2.0 points per game.
He got his Friday night point explosion started with an assist on Jakub Stancl’s goal to tie the game 1-1 at the 11:57 mark of the first period. He doubled up on helpers 1:19 into the second period, dishing to Michael Cicek to tie the game again, 2-2.
Cristall got himself on the board 2:04 later, scoring his lone goal of the game. He got back in the assist column twice more in the second, providing the primary assists on Max Graham and Nate Corbet’s late-period strikes. Kelowna scored six total goals in the second and Cristall earned a point on four of them.
With Kelowna up big, Cristall played sparingly in the third period. Rockets head coach Kris Mallette refrained from giving his top players power-play time with the club up six goals late in the final frame.
Cristall’s big night puts him on pace for a staggering 169 points (49g, 120a) in 62 games this season. The only under-20 player since the 1995-96 season to record over 140 points in a WHL season is Connor Bedard, who posted 143 points (71g, 72a) in 57 games for the Regina Pats in 2022-23.
Among all age-19 seasons with at least 10 games played, Cristall’s current 2.71 point-per-game rate ranks fifth in WHL history. He is currently outpacing the age-19 seasons of present NHL names like Leon Draisaitl, Mark Stone, Brayden Point, Mathew Barzal, Logan Stankoven, Brayden Schenn, and Jordan Eberle.
