He is not all that big a gamble IMO. I just don't see the elite skills that Habs fans have been talking about. I seen flashes of it with Perezhogin but not Kastitsyn. He seems like a slower prototypical russian style player with ok size. Atleast his brother has a little sandpaper with his game and can make plays.
He does have ok size as you mentioned, and some people over-rate his speed. He certainly isn't slow, but it's not like he could outrun a guy like Perezhogin.
But i'm curious as to how you came to the opinion that he doesn't play with an edge or can't make plays? Have you had a chance to watch him at all or is your opinion based on what you've read/heard? Because he most certainly can play with an edge and create plays. Now, the problem with him is that he isn't consistant in doing both these things. Sometimes, he can shy away and try and do too much on his own, but when he is playing well, he can play the body very well, both in terms of using it to protect the puck or separate an opponant from it and occassionally, he can level people with his hits. A few people found that out in the AHL last year. The easiest way of firing him up, that i saw last year, is if someone tries to cheapshot him, or even just checking him hard. He wakes up, plays with more determination and looks a lot more like the player Habs fans want him to be.
during the course of last season with the Hamilton Bulldogs, he had 2 big slumps from what i saw. The first month of the season, he wasn't playing close to his best hockey (its been suggested he had his mind set on making the Habs out of camp, when that didn't happen, he went to the AHL and struggled the first month). Then his coach called him on it and he stepped up his game, earning him several trips to and from Montreal. The other big slump he had was towards the end of the season when the Bulldogs were eliminated from playoff contention, although to be fair, almost half the team disappeared at that point so it wasn't something he alone had difficulty with. But the rest of the season, he may only disappear for a game or three every now and again but he played fairly consistantly the rest of the time and put up decent numbers for a 21 year old on a team with little veteran help, 2 NHL teams making callups and which struggled and battled for virtually anything they could get all year long. He is a good player but he is still learning and there is only so much he can do on a team that struggled so much last year.
When he got time in the NHL, he looked sharp, alert, and as far as some people were concerned, as though he belonged where he was. Some people were saying he was one of the better players on the team at the time. Some games he got limited ice time (39 seconds in his first game, for example) and others he got considerably more. He managed 2 goals (including a wrap-around on Brodeur) and an assist and played well for the most part. Even when he got sent back to Hamilton for the last time, he dominated the first 2 or 3 games he played back in the AHL before settling into more of a rhythm.
So as for his physical play, yes, his kid brother brings it more consistantly than Andrei, but he certainly isn't incapable of it. And the playmaking issue? Trust me, (which you may not be willing to do since i'm clearly a big AK fan, but all the same) this side of his game is under-rated. People hear comments that he tries to do to much on his own and think 'Ah, he's selfish, he relies on his shot to finish other players good work, he isn't a team guy'. Which is nonsense. He is capable of making a range of quick, subtle and intelligent passes and he can do so accurately. And when he plays the point on the PP, his teammates know that he can use his shot from the point, or he can take the puck down low with his stickhandling and try to set someone up, or he can just stand at the blue line and feed passes to anyone standing upright holding their stick correctly. And not just the easy, tape to tape pass to the wide open player. He can thread it between players, over sticks and to the player in the best position to do something with it.
The problem with him is that he is inconsistant, not that he is selfish, can't play physically, can't make plays or defend, etc. He can do all the things required of an NHL player (to an extent, obviously he has strengths and weaknesses) but he just needs to learn how to make the right decision most of the time. but that shouldn't be an issue because he is still developing and every year in North America, he has shown improvement. And while he may never reach the level of an Ovechkin or Crosby, there is no reason why he might not be able to hit the 70-80 point mark with decent regularity.