Finally healthy, right-winger Wade Allison could make push to join Flyers later this season

It has been a long, winding, and injury-filled journey for Wade Allison, one of the Flyers’ top prospects.

That explains why the rugged 6-foot-2, 205-pound right winger’s emotions were even higher than normal when he scored a goal in his pro debut Sunday, helping the Lehigh Valley Phantoms defeat Hershey, 4-1, in an AHL game.

“It was pretty cool,” Allison said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It had been a real long time -- over a year since I had played my last game -- so it was really nice to get it over with early. I was pretty nervous before the game, and then got scored on in my first shift.”

Allison’s climb to the AHL has been a story about perseverance.

There was the torn ACL in his right knee while he was at Western Michigan in 2018 – an injury that occurred when he was one of the nation’s best collegiate players -- and a recovery from surgery that took much longer than expected.

There was the shoulder injury that impacted his senior year at Western Michigan, and the ankle bone fragments that ended his stay at the Flyers’ training camp this January – he had an outside chance to make the NHL team – and required surgery.

“It was bothering me in my Achilles and I was pretty nervous there for a bit and thought I might have some Achilles trouble,” he said, “but it just turned out to be a quick little surgery and I was out for six weeks before I could get back into it.”

Allison, 23, a second-round 2016 selection via a draft pick acquired in the Kimmo Timonen trade with Chicago, said he had a “dull ache,” but no real problems with the ankle Sunday and that he is close to 100%. He is still working on his timing and the Phantoms’ systems, but he played well in his debut.

A prototypical power forward with a cannon of a shot, Allison is ready to put in time with the Phantoms, and maybe, just maybe, will get a call up to the Flyers later this season.

“He’s going to need some games to get his game going, but the plan was that we probably would have seen him [with the Flyers] -- whether a short-term call-up or he gets a chance,” said Brent Flahr, a Flyers assistant general manager. At camp before his ankle ailment this year, “he didn’t look out of place, that’s for sure.”

Allison, No. 3 on The Inquirer’s list of the Flyers’ top-12 prospects, isn’t looking too far ahead. “I’m going to do the best I can with what I’ve got and see where I can end up,” he said.

» READ MORE: After 1-3 homestand, fading Flyers and Carter Hart will try to regroup on the road vs. Rangers

In Monday’s game against the Rangers, Michael Raffl, who usually plays right wing, returned to the lineup at center after missing four games with an injured right hand. He centered Oskar Lindblom and Nic Aube-Kubel on the fourth line.

Raffl said the injured hand was “manageable,” and that he welcomed the challenge to play center again.

Andy Andreoff was scratched from the lineup.

More fans are expected to be allowed to attend Flyers and 76ers games early next month.

Gov. Tom Wolf loosened indoor coronavirus restrictions Monday, increasing capacity from 15% to 25%, effective April 4. If the city of Philadelphia agrees with that change, capacity at the Wells Fargo Center could increase from 3,100 to about 5,000 per game, though the latter number has not been determined.

The city is expected to follow the state’s ruling.

If the city agrees with the state’s new restrictions, it would start to affect the Sixers for their April 4 home game against Memphis, and the Flyers for their April 6 matchup against Boston.