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CJ Kirst

2025 College Draft Prospect Profile: CJ Kirst

By Adam Lamberti | Mar 20, 2025

We are less than two months out from the 2025 College Draft, and it’s time to take a deeper look at some of the players that will be at the top of everyone’s boards in May.

First up is Cornell attackman CJ Kirst, the top player in the class.

CJ Kirst’s Player Comparison:

If TJ Malone played like Pat Spencer

Lamberti’s Projected Draft Pick:

No. 1 to Philadelphia Waterdogs

You might have heard of a five-tool prospect in baseball: a player with the ability to hit, hit with power, field and has the arm strength and base-running.

CJ Kirst is the lacrosse equivalent of that. 

His game against Princeton on March 17 is a perfect microcosm of his potential. He scored off a dodge, off a cut and on a step-down shot, and dished out two beautiful assists.

Kirst reminds me a lot of 2024 Rookie of the Year TJ Malone with his ability to do it all – dodge, shoot and feed with both hands – but he has more of a bounce in his step when he dodges, like 2019 Tewaaraton Award winner Pat Spencer.

Cornell’s all-time goals leader, Kirst has had a target on his back since bursting onto the scene as a freshman in 2022. But with his special combination of skill, leadership and intangibles, he hasn’t slowed down since then despite being at the top of every scouting report.

As a dodger, Kirst is so difficult to cover, not just because he can go to either hand, but because his arsenal is so deep.

He does the majority of his damage from the lefty wing, but he has at least four different moves he can go to to get to the cage, leaving defenders guessing.

When he doesn’t have the ball, Kirst is always working to get open, whether that’s on a cut toward the net or floating on the perimeter and looking for a step-down shot.

As a feeder, Kirst is great at finding the open man on the move. He’s not the quarterback in the sense that he’ll pick you apart with passes from behind the net, but he’s still a very real threat to skip a pass to an open target.

It was three years ago, but I think back to Kirst playing on the Team USA U-21 squad in the summer of 2022.

On a team filled with players like Pat Kavanagh, Brennan O’Neill, Shane Knobloch and Graham Bundy Jr., Kirst was the best player in the championship game against Team Canada, scoring five goals in the 12-10 win.

He scored on a dodge and assisted Knobloch on an ankle-breaking move from X, but the vast majority of his production came off-ball, finding soft spots in the defense and letting Kavanagh and others find him on the inside for the score.

That’s why Kirst seems destined to be an awesome professional player and perennial All-Star. On a team filled with stars, like all PLL teams are and like Team USA U-21 was, he’s still going to find a way to impact the game at all times, whether that’s as a ball-carrying goal-scorer or finding success off-ball. 

Assuming he is the pick at No. 1, he’s going to be given the keys of the Waterdogs' offense on the lefty side with Kieran McArdle getting up there in age. But he can fill any offensive role with his skillset and should immediately boost Philly's offense into one of the better units in the league.

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