Anderson put up 49 points in 68 games in his 18 year old season on a powerhouse London team (6th on team); 51 points in 59 games in his 19 year old season (8th); 17 points in 59 games in his 20 year old AHL season.
Allison was playoffs MVP in his 18 year old season and 2nd in regular season scoring on his USHL team; 4th in scoring on his team as a 19 year old in the best conference in college hockey; now 2nd on his team and 10th in college hockey in his age 20 season. Those profiles don't look much alike to me. Josh Anderson was certainly a late bloomer and is a fine player.......but it was at age 22-23, not age 18-19.
I'll mildly criticize his hockey sense, but those tools you describe don't resemble anything I've seen of Allison. He's sleeker and more athletic than Anderson, has a quicker shot, and is a lot more finesse than you're making it out. He's not a bullish brute. All it takes is watching a few highlights to see him dummying people with dangles to see he very much has fine motor skills and skilled hands. I think you're better off comparing Bunnaman to hopefully an Anderson type at a similar stage, though he's not as good a skater.
Magua, I highly respect you, love your well-thought-out posts, and your scouting reports.
But I think you are overrating Allison's fine motor skills as they translate to the professional level.
Good prospects can all pull off dangles against weaker competition. Put Anderson in Allison's places at the same stages, and he's making the same moves. But that's not their games at the professional level.
I think Allison was even quoted this summer at camp as saying something like he didn't think he could have the same offensive game against professional players because of his stickhandling. That's paraphrasing. I'm sure someone knows the actual quote.
The facts remain:
Neither scored much at all in their 17 year old years
At 18, Anderson scored 49 in 68 in the OHL, and Allison scored 47 in 56 in the USHL, a lesser league.
At 19, Anderson scored 51 in 59 in the OHL and made the WJC team. Allison scored 29 in 36 at Western Mich. No WJC.
They are both big, strong, energetic RH wingers whose pro games rely (or will rely) on their size, strength, and shot, not hockey sense, stickhandling, or vision. They are both guys who kept getting better as they got older.
Anderson is now, at 23, putting up 10 goals and 17 total points in 26 games.
You think Allison is better than that? I think what this boils down to is you underrate Anderson.
If Allison becomes Anderson, I'll be ecstatic. My only worry is Anderson is faster, and that could be the slight difference.
