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Q: Who do you think Ray Shero is leaning toward taking with the second overall pick, assuming Erik Johnson goes No. 1, and who do you think we should pick?

Jeremy Hustead, Ambridge

MOLINARI: While Johnson, the defenseman from the U.S. national developmental program who is headed to the University of Minnesota, is generally regarded as the top prospect available in the June 24 entry draft, there is nothing resembling a consensus on how the top players after him should be ranked. Scouting services, and most of the 30 teams, have Jordan Staal, Jonathan Toews, Phil Kessel and Nicklas Backstrom placed in every conceivable order, with Peter Mueller and Derick Brassard spliced in on a few lists.

The Penguins have not divulged their draft list, although Shero and head scout Greg Malone said yesterday the team has decided who to take if, as expected, St. Louis claims Johnson with the No. 1 choice. Both men also acknowledged that it also is possible, though not likely, that the Penguins could change their minds before the draft. The final decision is Shero's, but he's asked for a lot of input from his scouts, which is one of the reasons he planned to have a conference call with them yesterday.

It would be pretentious for the moderator of this forum to profess to know which prospect would be the best choice for the Penguins. When people who make their livings evaluating talent can't agree on how the top-end players in the draft field compare, someone who has seen them only on tape certainly can't offer a meaningful opinion of which prospect would be the best fit with the Penguins. The Penguins should take the highest-rated player on their list, regardless of his position, when it's their turn to choose.

Q: Wow, I am so excited for Evgeni Malkin to finally wear a Penguins sweater. Will this help Penguins management decide whether or not to be players in the free-agent market this off-season? I believe one or two quality wingers, along with one or two quality defensemen, will take this team far next season. Also, will this maybe spark a deal sooner than expected to get the Penguins the arena they deserve?

Christopher Smith, Virginia Beach, Va.

MOLINARI: Delighted and excited as the Penguins have to be about Russia agreeing to participate in the transfer agreement negotiated last year between the NHL and International Ice Hockey Federation -- thus making it possible for Malkin to play here in the fall -- his arrival in North America won't have any impact on the issues you mentioned.

While the Penguins clearly will want to give Malkin the most talented wingers possible -- what's the point of having a good playmaker if his linemates perform like they lost their hands in an industrial accident? -- their approach to free agency will be dictated as much by financial constraints as by personnel needs. A guy like, say, Patrik Elias would look awfully good alongside Malkin or Sidney Crosby and Zdeno Chara or Ed Jovanovski would be terrific additions to the Penguins' blue line, but the salaries they'll command on the open market would be budget-busters for the Penguins. With a payroll likely to be in the low- to mid-$30 million range, Shero figures to focus on players with somewhat lower profiles and salary demands.

As for the up-to-date arena the city needs for so many things beside holding onto its NHL franchise, the cleanest route to getting one continues to be via the license that will be awarded to operated a slots parlor here. Isle of Capri has pledged $290 million to a new building if it gets the license, which the state Gaming Control Board is expected to award in December. Elected officials have put forth a Plan B to finance an arena if IOC doesn't get the license, but the Penguins, whose lease at Mellon Arena expires in 2007 and who will be free to relocate at that time, have absolutely no obligation to get involved with it.

Q: Is there any truth to the rumor that the Pens will trade their No. 2 overall draft choice to Carolina for the No. 3 pick last year, Jack Johnson? (A website story) said that Carolina wants to draft Jordan Staal to keep him with his brother, and then Johnson and Sidney Crosby would be able to play together. Just wondering if you'd heard anything about this, or if this could be a possibility.

Christine, Michigan

MOLINARI: In general, this forum won't even use the word "rumor," let alone lend legitimacy to one by discussing it. Few sports, if any, seem to spawn more of them than hockey, and it doesn't appear to bother many fans that most don't even come close to reflecting reality. Or that only a microscopic percentage play out the way they're presented.

Nonetheless, since the advent of the internet, trade speculation spreads faster than germs in a preschool, and the example you cited seems to have been mentioned by nearly everyone in the known world in recent days. Everyone except Shero and his Carolina counterpart, Jim Rutherford, that is. Although Shero has made it clear he'll listen to offers for the team's first-rounder and acknowledges that he's fielded calls about it, at this point, the potential swap you mentioned is rooted entirely in speculation.

Should Rutherford ever propose such an exchange, however, Shero should make certain to keep him on the phone until all the paperwork is complete and the deal is official, because it would be a tremendous move for the Penguins. Johnson, a close friend of Crosby's who just completed his freshman season at Michigan, is big and tough and skilled. He is going to be a force all over the ice in the NHL, and might win a Norris Trophy or two while providing the cornerstone of his team's defense corps for a decade or so.

Staal is an exceptional prospect and completely worthy of being the second player taken in this draft -- coincidentally, his brother Eric went to the Hurricanes with the second overall pick in 2003 -- but a defenseman like Johnson has the potential to be even more valuable over the course of his career. Which, given that the Hurricanes are going to have to overhaul, if not rebuild, their defense corps in the near future, is a pretty good reason for them to hold onto Johnson, no matter how intriguing the idea of uniting the Staal brothers might be.

Q: I have not been able to locate a complete list of the players under contract for next season. I am sure that many readers are trying to play GM (like I am) and figure out what the team will look like in August/September, after the draft, free agency, etc.

Jim Grasky, Portland, Me.

MOLINARI: Players who spent a significant amount of time with the Penguins during 2005-06 and already are under contract for next season include goalies Jocelyn Thibault and Sebastien Caron, defensemen Sergei Gonchar, Ryan Whitney, Josef Melichar, Rob Scuderi and Eric Cairns and forwards Sidney Crosby, Erik Christensen, Shane Endicott, Maxime Talbot, John LeClair, Andre Roy and Michel Ouellet. Defenseman Noah Welch, who served a season-long apprenticeship in Wilkes-Barre but looked to be NHL-ready in five games with the Penguins, also has a deal in place. So does Micki DuPont, who accepted a two-way deal yesterday, and will be given a chance to play his way onto the major-league roster.

Regulars who will be restricted free agents this summer if the Penguins give them qualifying offers by the June 26 deadline include goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, forwards Colby Armstrong, Andy Hilbert, Konstantin Koltsov, Ryan Malone and Tomas Surovy and defenseman Brooks Orpik. Wingers Eric Boguniecki, Matt Murley and Ryan VandenBussche and defenseman Lyle Odelein headline the list of soon-to-be unrestricted free agents.

Precisely what the roster will look like in September is impossible to say at this point -- who would have foreseen DuPont returning to the mix? -- but it seems safe to pencil in Malkin and erase the names of forwards Lasse Pirjeta, Jani Rita and Niklas Nordgren, all of whom have signed to play in Europe.

Q: What sort of impact do you see Evgeni Malkin making when he enters the NHL? Do you see him making as big of a splash as Alexander Ovechkin? Perhaps playing on the same team with an all-world talent like Sidney Crosby would allow him to surpass even the amazing rookie season that Ovechkin had.

Curtis Mullins of Grundy, Va.

MOLINARI: Malkin was widely, if not universally, touted as the finest player in the world outside of the NHL last winter. And even though he won't turn 20 until July 31, it's reasonable to believe that he will have an immediate impact in the NHL. That doesn't mean he'll match the point production Ovechkin and Crosby had during their rookie seasons, but Malkin has the size (6 foot 3, 186 pounds), strength, skating and skill to be used in any game situation.

He figures to center one of the top two lines -- whether his unit or the one built around Crosby is perceived as the No. 1 group might change from game to game -- and eventually, if not immediately, become a fixture on both special teams because he was effective on the power-play and while penalty-killing during his time in the Russian Super League and in international competitions.

Adapting to the smaller ice surface and more physical style found in North America should not be much of a problem for Malkin, because he seems to enjoy hitting and certainly doesn't shy away from traffic. A bigger hurdle likely will be learning the language and adjusting to the cultural differences between North America and Russia. That might not seem daunting to some, but imagine being taken halfway around the world, dropped into a place where the words and food and every other element of everyday life are completely alien. And, oh yeah, having a job where people hit you with sticks for 2 1/2 hours 80 or so nights a year.

Q: Do you think Craig Patrick will ever again hold a high-level position with an NHL club? Do you think, in the future, he would be considered for a GM or president job, or do you suppose he will permanently retire from the world of pro hockey?

Mark, Toronto, Ontario

MOLINARI: Patrick hasn't spoken to any members of the local media -- or many of his former colleagues with the Penguins, for that matter -- since being told two months ago that his contract wasn't being renewed, so there's no way of being certain what he has in mind. He was, however, mentioned as a candidate for GM jobs in Boston and on Long Island, so it seems reasonable to believe that he wouldn't walk away from a front-office position if offered one.

Patrick's knowledge of the game is voluminous and beyond reproach; he lost his job with the Penguins not because he doesn't know hockey -- let's not forget that the guy helped to assemble teams that won two Stanley Cups and an Olympic gold medal -- but because his approach to running a team didn't keep up with the times.

Especially in the final years of his tenure, the Penguins' front-office and scouting staffs were undermanned, and the team hardly was on the cutting edge of technological developments in the industry. That old-time hockey mindset suggests a franchise might be taking a big gamble by hiring him as a GM -- it's far from certain that Patrick would be willing (or even see the need) to modify the way he runs a hockey department -- but his experience and knowledge could make him a worthwhile addition as a consultant.

Q: I've seen where OLN has been replaying old playoff games and I wondered, how many Cups could we have won in the '90s if the new rules were enforced then?

Lee, Olanta, Pa.

MOLINARI: There's no way of being certain, of course, but the suspicion here is that the Penguins' run of championships wouldn't have made it past three, regardless of what rules were on the books, or how strictly they were enforced. And, frankly, that's how many they should have won, anyway, since their 1992-93 squad was better than either of the groups that won Cups in 1991 and 1992. The Penguins' second-round upset by the New York Islanders -- a team that finished 32 points behind them during the regular season -- in 1993 remains one of the real low points for a franchise whose history is rife with them. (Imagine how all the current and future Hall of Famers on a team that won the Presidents' Trophy feel now about having their bid for a third consecutive Cup sabotaged by the likes of David Volek and Glenn Healy.)

But even though the Penguins were at their best during the 1992-93 season -- they won a league-record 17 games in a row before tying their regular-season finale -- things began to unravel for them almost immediately thereafter. Coach Scott Bowman accepted a big-money offer from Detroit -- not that the Penguins mourned his departure or made a major effort to keep him -- Mario Lemieux's chronic back problems limited him to 22 appearances in 1993-94 and power forward extraordinaire Kevin Stevens never really rebounded from the severe facial injuries he got in Game 7 against New York.

The Penguins hardly were an also-ran at that point -- their lineup still was more imposing than most -- but the days when they were assured a spot on everyone's short list of serious Cup contenders was over.