Stay the course

overpay for Laughton, underpay for Cousins, underpay for Vecchione, underpay for Weal (IMO), awful contract for Ghost...

Really? That much that its worthy not comment it? How much are really talking here? 100 maybe 200K difference for each of those players except for Ghost who would be extremely lucky to get that contract. Not sure why he deserves so much more? Subban got a bridge deal at roughly the same thing. Sure, he went on to win the Norris and really screw MTL after that but we're talking about Ghost here. I don't foresee any Norrises in his future. I think he'd be happy to take a bridge deal at that amount. If its about term, then I agree. Get him signed longer now while he's cheaper as he should only get better from here on out. Still this contract isn't the end of the world.

900 for Laughton isn't that far off base. It could be anyweher from 750-950.
750 for Cousins is a bit low but nothing more then a 1M should be given. So we're talking 250K difference here.
975 for Vecchionne seems fine. Not sure what he has leverage to prove otherwise. College is college and NHL is NHL. He hasn't done sh*t in the NHL yet. He's a 24 year old smallish center with virtually no NHL experience.
975 for Weal is about right. Don't let the small sample size fool you. He wasn't going to keep up that pace all year with Philly. He is the same player he was in LA. A smallish skilled winger/center that can put up decent production given offensive roles only but can't stick with any other role.

As for Ghost, well its tough I guess. His offensive production screams "lock him up long term". His defensive game yells "I need a bridge deal to prove Im not just a M-A Bergeron".

Perfect explanation, honestly. I wouldn't give Ghost a long term, 5+ million deal until he showed defensive ability.
I think that this is a good roster, the only thing I'd have a problem with his VGK taking Matt Read instead of a younger player, so I see possible compensation needed heading the other way, but a solid roster with no outrageous signings and no outrageous deals.
Also five stars for someone deciding to stay the course for a team rather than blowing it away because of personal bias or their team didn't make the playoffs.

Pretty much what I've been thinking. Those small contracts are tough to nail down and any over/under payments probably come out in the wash. As for lineups, Vecchione will play C and Laughton will likely play wing in the NHL even though he's playing C in the AHL this year. Ghost plays right and I think he'll get paired with Morin but I guess we'll find out soon enough. It'll be interesting to see who LVG takes from Read/Weise/Cousins/Laughton/Raffl but it won't dramatically effect the roster either way. Agreed that Lindblom starts the year with LHV, maybe gets called up mid-season due to injury. Overall nicely done. Stay the course.

yeah Marco it is significant because Weal and Vecchione are UFAs/RFAs looking for money (Vecchione) so they have more leverage. Weal is looking at probably 1.3-1.5M and Vecchione would have signed a deal longer than 3 days if he wanted to keep making 900k so you have to assume he's looking for over 1M. Then Cousins is easily going to make over PEBs so probably the 1.4-1.7 range. Laughton is an overpay for the fact that he might not even be on the roster next season so why does he even get a raise as a RFA with no leverage? Giving Ghost a bridge deal screams prepare to lose him at the end of the contract, and if you watch Flyers game you know his defense is not near as bad as the media or a casual fan wants you to believe. If the Flyers give him a short bridge deal they will lose him when he becomes a UFA so yes enough to comment again.