With Monday's acquisition of center Kris Newbury, plus the news that four Adirondack Phantoms players received qualifying offers and two more didn't, this seems like as good a time as any to update the contract chart. Here's how everything stands at this hour, days shy of NHL free agency:

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	SIGNED - ASIA*
Cullen Eddy (D)	NHL	SIGNED
Zack FitzGerald (LW/D)	AHL	UFA
Kyle Flanagan (C)	ATO	SIGNED - NHL
Erik Gustafsson (D)	NHL	QUALIFIED 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	NOW UFA
Matt Konan (D)	NHL	SIGNED
David Laliberte (LW)	AHL	UFA
Oliver Lauridsen (D)	NHL	QUALIFIED RFA
Andreas Lilja (D)	NHL	SIGNED - SWEDEN
Brandon Manning (D)	NHL	QUALIFIED 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	TRADED - NYR
Mitch Wahl (C)	NHL	NOW UFA
Eric Wellwood (F)	NHL	QUALIFIED RFA

*Thanks to @JoshJanet for the tip. This went through a couple weeks ago, but I missed it.

One thing that immediately jumps off the page from that chart is that there's a pretty solid core of Phantoms who are under contract for next season. There are 18 players who have played for the team before already signed to contracts, plus an additional four players who received qualifying offers.

The Phantoms also have goalie Carsen Chubak under contract for next season, while the Flyers have signed defenseman Maxim Lamarche and forwards Michael Raffl and Peter Straka. Add in Newbury and you're now looking at some 28 players who are candidates for positions in Glens Falls. Here's another few tables, which include everyone the Flyers or Phantoms have under contract for next year.

NHL LOCKS

LW	C	RW
HARTNELL	GIROUX	VORACEK
B. SCHENN	LECAVALIER	SIMMONDS
TALBOT	COUTURIER	READ
ROSEHILL	HALL	RINALDO

D	D	G
TIMONEN	STREIT	MASON
L. SCHENN	MESZAROS	EMERY
GROSSMANN	COBURN
PRONGER*	GERVAIS

NHL BUBBLE

LW	C	RW
McGINN	LAUGHTON	AKESON
RAFFL	NEWBURY	HOLMSTROM

D	D
GUSTAFSSON	BOURDON*
LAURIDSEN

PHANTOMS

LW	C	RW
NOEBELS	FLANAGAN	STRAKA
MANGENE	BORDSON	ALDERSON
BROWN	COUSINS	MATHERS
WELLWOOD*	JOHNSTON

D	D	G
MANNING	KONAN	DANIS
LAMARCHE	EDDY	HEETER
ALT	HOSTETTER	CHUBAK

*Injured
AHL CONTRACT 
Qualified, but needs to be formally signed.


A couple of things. The wings are fluid, since the Flyers have a lot of centers that are also capable of playing on the wings. Take that as you will. Right away, though, you realize that there aren't that many spots up for grabs in Philadelphia's training camp this year. I'd say that eight of their top nine forward spots are set, and you're probably looking for two additional forwards to make the big club. That's where the NHL bubble table comes into play. I'd like to think that McGinn will take one of the spots, based on how well he played when he was down here, but the team said some pretty glowing things about Raffl when they signed him. They think he could be NHL ready. We'll just have to see.

Laughton is an impressive kid who the Flyers like a lot. I think he gets another spot up top. Then you could take the rest of those players from the bubble table and add them to the Phantoms. The exception is Laughton, who is either going to the NHL or juniors this season. But if Akeson, Newbury and Holmstrom all come down, I think that doesn't look like a bad group of forwards. Still a little bit on the younger side, but it's clear that's been the Flyers preference over the past few seasons.

UPDATES: The Flyers re-signed Adam Hall Thursday, he's been added to the "NHL Locks" table. That's a good signing for the bottom six, and it now makes securing a spot out of training camp much more difficult for the bubble players. They're now competing for one roster spot, maybe two. They also added one-time Phantom (literally, he played one game here) Ray Emery to play goaltender. Later Friday, they signed former Oklahoma City Baron Yann Danis to a contract. That's a big deal.

What does that say about the free agency prospects? Well, if the Flyers are in the market for a couple of depth players to round out their AHL roster, that will take away ice time from some of their younger prospects. And there are a lot of kids -- as you can see from the tables -- that they're trying to develop this year. There are benefits to signing some veterans, though, and you can see that the Flyers turned a bit of a corner when they brought aboard Jon Sim and David Laliberte in the second half of the season. I think that they could really stand to benefit from another veteran winger come Friday.

The reality is, though, there aren't a lot of roster spots available within the organization at forward.

I still think Erik Gustafsson, who is eligible for waivers, has probably played his last game in Glens Falls, unless you account for a conditioning assignment. But Manning and Lauridsen are exempt from waivers, so they've got a pretty good chance to return. Wellwood will have some work to do to get back into game shape once he returns from that Achillies injury, estimated to be in January. He's also eligible for waivers, according to CapGeek, but his situation is a little different given that injury.

They're also probably going to have to trade one of Braydon Coburn or Andrej Meszaros up top to give themselves some salary cap relief, which would increase Gustafsson's chances of sticking in the NHL. Defensive depth really isn't this organization's strength. They could really benefit from picking up one or two guys through free agency when that opens. Some of the best available at the AHL level are Andre Benoit, Bobby Sanguinetti and Nate Guenin, a former Flyers prospect who had a career season with Norfolk. Nick Holden also had a really good season with the Springfield Falcons.

They're still sort of young at goalie, too. They need to sign an NHL back-up, but it probably wouldn't hurt to have another Scott Munroe in the fold. A guy who wouldn't mind being the back-up to Heeter, but would be able to make a spot start or two in the NHL if the Flyers absolutely needed him to. EDIT: Danis fits that bill. But if you include Laughton, and the four qualifying offers, they're already at 49 contracts. (Updated to include Thursday afternoon's Hall signing and Friday afternoon's addition of Ray Emery from Chicago and Danis). They don't have a lot of room to spare. If Laughton goes back to juniors, his contract doesn't count. They also have goalie Anthony Stolarz under contract, but he'll probably go back to juniors as well. Accordingly, I haven't included him in the 50-contract calculations.

Jonathan Bombulie of The (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) Citizens' Voice and myself hope to have the list of the top AHL free agents live online later this afternoon, or tomorrow at the latest. We ranked the top 300 and did a brief bio on the rest of them. I'll be sure to Tweet out a link to that when it's live online.