The Adirondack Phantoms news of this Thursday afternoon is that center Rob Bordson gave up a shot at being an unrestricted free agent to re-sign an American Hockey League contract with the club. This is a good move for the Phantoms, who lock down the player that was their best defensive center and penalty killer last year and also established new AHL career highs with 12 goals and 25 points. I have a call in to Bordson, who was spending the afternoon golfing, and hope to hear back from him soon.

Now that the Calder Cup finals are over -- congratulations to Albany Academy's Brian Lashoff and the Grand Rapids Griffins, who beat Syracuse in six games -- and the Stanley Cup Finals are winding down, it seems like a good time to hit the reset button and take a look at where this season's Phantoms stand for the coming campaign, at least as far as their contracts are concerned. Below, I've basically listed all of the Phantoms players alphabetically and included some annotations for each of them.

I didn't bother including players like Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier or Zac Rinaldo, who did not see any time with the Phantoms once the lockout ended. They have seen the last of these parts. I also did not include Scott Laughton, who is not eligible to play in the AHL until his junior season ends.
 

Player Name	2012-13 Contract Type	2013-14 Contract Status
Jason Akeson (RW)	NHL	SIGNED
Brandon Alderson (W)	ATO	SIGNED - NHL
Mark Alt (D)	ATO	SIGNED - NHL
Rob Bordson (LW/C)	AHL	SIGNED - AHL
Brian Boucher (G)	NHL	UFA
Marc-Andre Bourdon (D)	NHL	SIGNED
Tyler Brown (LW)	NHL	SIGNED
Nick Cousins (C)	NHL	SIGNED
Jeff Dimmen (D)	AHL	UFA
Cullen Eddy (D)	NHL	SIGNED
Zack FitzGerald (LW/D)	AHL	UFA
Kyle Flanagan (C)	ATO	SIGNED - NHL
Erik Gustafsson (D)	NHL	RFA
Shane Harper (RW)	NHL	TRADED - NYI
Cal Heeter (G)	NHL	SIGNED
Ben Holmstrom (RW)	NHL	SIGNED
Tyler Hostetter (D)	NHL	SIGNED
Andrew Johnston (F)	NHL	SIGNED
Blake Kessel (D)	NHL	RFA
Matt Konan (D)	NHL	SIGNED
David Laliberte (LW)	AHL	UFA
Oliver Lauridsen (D)	NHL	RFA
Andreas Lilja (D)	NHL	SIGNED - SWEDEN
Brandon Manning (D)	NHL	RFA
Matt Mangene (F)	NHL	SIGNED
Derek Mathers (RW)	NHL	SIGNED
Tye McGinn (LW)	NHL	SIGNED
Scott Munroe (G)	AHL	SIGNED - SWEDEN
Marcel Noebels (LW/C)	NHL	SIGNED
Garrett Roe (C)	AHL	UFA
Jon Sim (LW/RW)	AHL	UFA
Ian Slater (LW/C)	AHL	UFA
Danny Syvret (D)	NHL	SIGNED
Mitch Wahl (C)	NHL	RFA
Eric Wellwood (F)	NHL	RFA

UFA means the player is an unrestricted free agent, and thus free to sign with any team in any league. RFA means the player is a restricted free agent, so the Flyers would have to extend them a qualifying offer to retain their rights. If the Flyers don't give them a qualifying offer, they would become a UFA. Those players who are listed with blue annotations have signed or been traded elsewhere.

Most of the players listed as "signed" have no change in their contract status from this past season. If they were on an NHL deal, they remain on an NHL deal. The exceptions are guys like Mark Alt, Brandon Alderson and Kyle Flanagan, who spent the end of 2012-13 with the Phantoms on amateur try-out deals after their collegiate and junior seasons ended. Their NHL contracts will kick in this fall.

The following junior, college or European players have also been signed to contracts for the coming season: D Maxim Lamarche, F Michael Raffl, F Peter Straka and G Carsen Chubak (AHL). Be sure to keep an eye out on this blog, because I'm compiling a list of the best available AHL free agents. That'll probably run a little bit closer to the July 5 start of the NHL's free agency period.

Until next time,
MC