Flyers sign rugged right winger Wade Allison to entry-level contract; acquired in Kimmo Timonen trade
He recently completed a four-year career at Western Michigan. In 26 games this season, he had 10 goals, 23 points and a plus-11 rating.
For the second time in five days the Flyers signed one of their promising forward prospects.
Right winger Wade Allison, a second-round selection (52nd overall) in the 2016 draft, signed an entry-level deal Friday, general manager Chuck Fletcher announced. The two-year contract, which will start in the 2020-21 season, has an annual cap hit of $925,000, according o CapFriendly.com.
On Monday, the Flyers signed forward Tanner Laczynski, an Ohio State senior who was drafted in the sixth round of 2016.
Allison, 22, recently completed a four-year career at Western Michigan. In 26 games this season, he had 10 goals, 23 points and a plus-11 rating. He finished his career with 45 goals and 97 points in 106 games.
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Allison was drafted with one of the two picks the Flyers received in the Kimmo Timonen trade with Chicago in 2015.
A prototypical power forward, Allison tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in a game on Jan. 13, 2018. He had season-ending knee surgery the following week. Allison returned to play 22 games as a junior, but the knee was still giving him problems 17 months later while at the Flyers’ development camp last June.
This season, the senior overcame a couple injuries and, according to assistant Flyers general manager Brent Flahr, was coming into his own when the NCAA canceled its games because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“He had a shoulder injury early in the season and luckily it wasn’t too serious,” Flahr said earlier this week. “Unfortunately, before the season was shut down, he was playing his best hockey. He was trending toward having a strong finish. It is what it is."
Added Flahr, who heads the Flyers’ scouting department: "It’s unfortunate he’s missed some time the last year and a half, but physically he’s a big strong kid and ready to go.”
Flahr said Allison, the seventh player from the Flyers’ 2016 draft to sign with the organization, had a “great package of size, speed, and skill, and we strongly believe he’ll be an NHL power forward moving forward.”
The Flyers are talking with defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk (seventh-round selection in 2017) and winger Noah Cates (fifth-round selection in 2017) about signing entry-level deals. It appears Cates will go back to University of Minnesota-Duluth, and Kalynuk, who recently finished his junior season at Wisconsin, is undecided about whether he will turn pro.
Defenseman Cam York, 19, selected in the first round last June, plans to go back to the University of Michigan and “get physically stronger,” Flahr said.
Allison could have become an unrestricted free agent Aug. 15. Now he will try to earn a spot with the Flyers in training camp.