In the 2017-18 season, Wade Allison was one of the fastest-rising prospects in the Flyers system. He started his season with 30 points in 22 games, and looked to be a strong candidate to win or at the very least be in contention for the Hobey Baker Trophy. Then, Allison went down with a torn ACL, ending his season.

Last year, Allison spent much of his campaign attempting to recover from that injury, and simply wasn’t at full strength. In an article from the Courier-Post’s Dave Isaac, Allison went into detail about the struggles he faced this past season.

“It sucked, if I’m being honest,” Allison said of his season. “I practiced like once a week and then play on the weekends. I could never skate enough to get my cardio going. It’s like I’m useful for eight seconds out there and then I spend the rest of my shift trying not to puke. It sucked, for sure. I don’t know, the last year wasn’t fun. It sucked coming to the rink every day. It sucked hurting. But that’s the way it goes. It’s not all ups. You’ve got a lot of downs, but whatever. It’s something to work through.”

This season, Allison will look to return to his Hobey Baker form, and look to go far with Western Michigan in the 2019-20 NCAA season. There were some concerns about Allison’s apparent unwillingness to sign this offseason, but given what we know now about how rough of a season last year was for him, his reasoning begins to make all the more sense.

No. 13: Wade Allison

Position: F

Age: 21 (10/14/1997)

Size: 6’2”, 205

Acquired Via: 2016 NHL Draft — Round 2, Pick 52 (Pick acquired from Chicago along with a second-round pick in 2015 in exchange for Kimmo Timonen on February 27, 2015)

2018-19 League/Team/Statistics: Western Michigan (NCAA) - 8 G, 7 A in 22 GP

Nationality: Canadian

Ranking in BSH Winter 2019 25 Under 25: T-12

Make no mistakes about it, Wade Allison is still a very, very good prospect in this organization. He is what the Flyers have been craving for years in a pure goal scoring option, especially on the wing. Allison appears to be a legitimate sniper, something the Flyers haven’t really had since the days of Jeff Carter.

In his draft year with the Tri-City Storm of the USHL, Allison scored 25 goals in 56 games and posted 47 points altogether, and followed it with a solid freshman year at Western Michigan. He potted 12 goals and assisted on 17 for 29 points in 36 games. His sophomore year was where he broke out, and his injury had a monstrous impact on his team that faltered down the stretch and missed out on the NCAA tournament.

Last season, despite all of his struggles, he stil put up 15 points in 22 games. While not the most impressive total, given all of his issues physically it’s a pretty nice mark for him. With Allison finally healthy, I’d expect him to be a point per game player again, and wouldn’t be surprised to see him take home some hardware come seasons end.

As for the concerns of Allison signing, those appear to be lessened after learning the extent of his injury issues, but it would be nice to have it over and done with. He’s going to have a few guys to battle with for roster spots with the likes of Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, German Rubtsov, Nicolas Aube-Kubel and others all bidding for spots.

The fact that Allison only dropped one position from our winter rankings, despite having a down season at Western Michigan, goes to show just how much we think of Allison as a prospect. What he showed in his sophomore year is what we expect from him and possibly more this season. I’d love to see Allison have a huge year, because his shoot-first mentality and aggressive/pest kind of style is something I think this team could desperately use.

Previously in Philadelphia Flyers Summer 2019 Top 25 Under 25: