Canadiens: Danny Kristo and the Mid-Season Limbo

Former Montreal Canadiens prospect Danny Kristo finds himself a free agent once again.

Danny Kristo is a name that, in many ways, has long been forgotten by the hockey world, and the Montreal Canadiens.

In between the high-profile careers of NHL stars like Nathan Mackinnon and Connor McDavid, exists players like Kristo. Talented hockey players in their own right, who simply didn’t have the qualities to make it in the NHL, now continuing on in one of the many leagues dotted across the professional hockey landscape.

After spending the 2019-20 season as a top player with the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers of the National League, Kristo signed with Chinese club Kunlun Red Star of the KHL. However, after 14 unimpressive games, recording four goals, Kristo was released, long removed from his beginnings in professional hockey. That of a talented right winger out of the USHL, and a potentially promising part of the Canadiens future.

A native of the town of Edina, Minnesota, Kristo got his start in the United States National Development program, spending two seasons with their Under-18 Team before joining the USHL’s Omaha Lancers for the 2008-09 season. Playing alongside former Canadiens first round pick in 2009, Louis Leblanc, Kristo impressed, posting 22 goals and 36 assists in 50 games. With the Canadiens lacking a first-round pick in 2008 (something that hasn’t happened since) the team opted to select Kristo 56th overall, in a draft that produced a total of zero NHLers for Montreal.

After being drafted, Kristo committed to the University of North Dakota, playing alongside current NHLers Rocco Grimaldi and Brock Nelson. In his four seasons there, Kristo continued to showcase his offensive abilities, recording back-to-back to 40-point seasons as a junior and senior. However, while these totals were promising, Kristo began to become plagued by conditioning and personality issues, missing a dozen games in the 2010-11 season, mainly because of the reason most Canadiens fans remember Kristo.

When going to visit his girlfriend on January 31st, 2011, Kristo headed out late, into the freezing North Dakota winter wearing only tennis shoes, one of which he lost when he stepped in a deep snowbank. Kristo wound up suffering frost bite to both his fingers and his toes especially, with there being concern he would have to lose some of them. While he wound up recovering fully, it was a bump in Kristo’s road to the NHL and left the Canadiens questioning his potential.

Towards the end of his senior season, after signing a two-year deal, Kristo was given a tryout by the Canadiens with their AHL affiliate at the time, the Hamilton Bulldogs, recording three points over nine games. However, unbeknownst to Habs fans, these would be the only games Kristo would play with the organization, with him being dealt to the New York Rangers in July of 2013 in exchange for Christian Thomas, a similarly struggling former second round pick. In Thomas, the Canadiens got little besides a few cups of coffee and continued AHL struggles, sending him to the Arizona Coyotes in December of 2015 for Lucas Lessio.

For the Rangers, Kristo showcased his some of his potential from University, recording back-to-back 20 goal, 40-point seasons in 2013-14 and 2014-15. Despite this, the Rangers let Kristo walk in free agency, where he was picked up by the St. Louis Blues. After posting his third consecutive 40-point season, the Blues re-signed Kristo, with some seeing him as a likely candidate for an NHL call-up in 2016-17, and a promising player overall.

After posting just two assists through his first eight games however, Kristo was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, in exchange for defensive defenseman Reid McNeill. On a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins team led by a number of future NHL regulars like Jake Guentzel and Oskar Sundqvist, Kristo struggled. Despite picking up his pace towards the end of the season, he posted just 11 points over 32 games, causing Pittsburgh to trade him once more to the Carolina Hurricanes, in a deal that landed the Penguins veteran defenseman Ron Hainsey.

While he posted a solid 10 points over 14 games in a top line role with the Charlotte Checkers, Kristo had no NHL takers come the 2017 off-season, with him to heading overseas to continue his career, signing with Dynamo Riga of the KHL. Since then, Kristo has been one of many former Habs prospects and players who have had journeyman careers overseas, like the already mentioned Thomas and Lessio. While he’s had his moments, Red Star was Kristo’s fourth team in four seasons, and could potentially be his last. Kristo’s career since leaving North America is one that I’ve managed to follow, with him being one of the first minor league players I picked up on when I first began covering hockey.

In his four seasons split across three leagues, he’s still managed to show glimpses of the player he once was thought to be, that of a talented offensive forward with a nose for the net, and, most notably, blistering speed. Kristo’s main draw prior to, and since being drafted, has been his speed, and its what allowed him to adapt to the AHL quickly and have the brief success he had. Couple this with a solid shot, and its easy to see why team’s have continually been interested in him, though this is inevitably brought down by his flaws. Along with his drive and work ethic, Kristo’s defensive abilities leave something to be desired, having posted a -21 rating in the 2018-19 season, and his consistency leaves him as a non-threat more often than not.

With him now a free agent once more, it seems unlikely Kristo will be able to find work for the rest of this season, aside from a potential contract with a lower league in North America like the ECHL, or in a lower level league in a country like Austria or Slovakia. Kunlun has built up a penchant over these last few seasons for their abundance of non-Russian talent, and Kristo being released in spite of that is a sign of where his career stands at the moment. While understandable, it leaves me wondering what could have been, as Kristo is in a similar situation to even established NHLers like Mike Hoffman.

Whether he will be signed or not remains to be seen, but either way, it has been a long fall from grace for this former second round pick, as he now finds himself in the proverbial, mid-season limbo.