When Wade Allison was put on waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers before the regular season began, some even projected that he would get claimed by some frugal team trying to bring some of the apparent skill out of the 26-year-old winger. Fast forward a couple weeks and it could not be going worse for Allison.
Through five games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Allison has a big, fat goose egg next to his name on the stat sheet. Zero goals and zero assists with six shots on goal. That is what the winger, who was expected to at least be a top-tier AHL player and potentially break his way through in a middle-six role on the Flyers, is doing right now.
But, unfortunately for Allison, it goes beyond the disappointing stats.
Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere had nothing good to say about Allison’s season up to this point. On Sunday afternoon, when asked specifically what Allison has done so far in the AHL, Laperriere said that he has “seen nothing” positive. And added the context, thanks to NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer, that the player is probably disappointed to be here and all he needs to do is work through it.
Laperriere ended up demoting Allison to the fourth line for the Phantom’s game against the Springfield Thunderbirds on Sunday — an incredibly steep drop-off to where he was during Flyers training camp. It might be even worse for Allison after the coach already pointed out that Tanner Laczynski — another forward that was put through waivers and finds himself in the AHL — is taking the demotion well and is leading the team in scoring with seven points. Oof.
Now, because of this total lack of commitment to “turning the page” and making this season worth it for Allison, he might not get a real second chance around the NHL. Because after all, it isn’t the best look when a player doesn’t take a setback well. Reportedly, the Flyers have already explored the trade market for Allison and found no takers, wishing that his added flexibility of having passed through waivers might have garnered some interest. Now, the Flyers just have an apparently disgruntled player not living up to what he could do this season.
What’s next for Allison?
If he doesn’t improve on the season, not much. Unfortunately, the truth is that sometimes the hockey world just wants to squeeze all the juice out of you and spit you out after a week or two of not being extremely cooperative.
As we stand right now, both Laczynski and Olle Lycksell — who was just named AHL Player of the Week after scoring five goals this past weekend — are two options at forward that are getting the call to the NHL before John Tortorella even thinks of the name Wade Allison.
And even diving deeper, if Allison can’t make it beyond the Phantoms this year, it will be extremely tough to see the Flyers sending him a qualifying offer this summer. Allison is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights after this season, but if the Flyers feel that he is no longer a part of this organization — or if they just don’t think that it’s worth it to go through potential arbitration or a contract negotiation with the player — they can simply not qualify Allison and he will hit the open market. And if he doesn’t perform well for the rest of the season, it will be a tough sell job for any other organization as well.
Right now, it feels like the tipping point. Allison has the potential to bounce back and be a successful contributor at the NHL level, but if he dives deeper into not showing anything positive, as coach Laperriere said last week, he could be looking at even lower leagues for his next opportunity. Every team watches and deeply cares about being able to gel with any potential new team. If Allison’s performance is this volatile and unpredictable, and he has a very down year, then who knows if he will even be an AHL player next year. Which feels extremely crazy to say.
