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Q: According to Tom Barnes' article in the Post-Gazette last week, the awarding of the slots licenses could be delayed by as much as a year. If this scenario were to play out, would the Penguins' new ownership group still be bound to the deal with Isle of Capri? If it was decided that the slots licenses were not to be awarded until 2009, would the Pens be required to stay in Pittsburgh until 2009 because of the agreement they have with Isle of Capri?

Vince Comunale, North Versailles

MOLINARI: A change in the Penguins' ownership will not affect the team's agreement with Isle of Capri, but it's conceivable that a delay in the awarding of the slots license could. Although Penguins officials steadfastly refuse to divulge details of their arrangement with IOC -- it might be easier to come up with a copy of their confidential draft-prospect rankings -- it hardly seems out of the question that the agreement includes a deadline that frees one party, or both, from obligations to the other if the state Gaming Control Board hasn't given out the Pittsburgh license by a stipulated date.

While it is not clear what the expiration date, if any, on the Penguins-IOC partnership is, no one should assume that the Penguins will still be here by, say, 2009 if the slots license hasn't been awarded before then. The team's lease at Mellon Arena expires next July, at which point the Penguins could become the most expensive, and possibly attractive, free agent in NHL history.

The good news, such as it is, is that the prevailing sentiment inside the Penguins' organization seems to be that the current snag over which middlemen should supply slots machines to the license-winners will be resolved before the end of this month. That would, at least in theory, keep the objective of having the licenses distributed by sometime in December viable.

Q: That there is no consensus as to who is the second-best prospect in the draft, and that the Pens would have greatly benefited from a defenseman of Erik Johnson's caliber, just goes to reinforce what I said back in April: The Pens were completely idiotic for winning their way out of last place in the overall standings. And before someone suggests that not trying to win each and every game is somehow cheating the fans, would anyone have preferred that the Pens made the effort to win their way out of last place in the 1983-84 season?

Matt, Castle Shannon

MOLINARI: Actually, longtime fans might recall that the Penguins had to lose their way into last place 22 years ago and, in the process, secure the right to draft Mario Lemieux; New Jersey trailed the Penguins in the overall standings for much of the season and likely would have finished last if the Penguins hadn't put together a spectacular 3-17-1 closing kick, including 12 losses in their final 14 games.

Of course, the introduction of the draft lottery, in which all 14 non-playoff clubs participate, eliminates the guarantee that the team finishing at the bottom of the overall standings will have the first choice in the draft. Witness the spring of 2004, when the Penguins had the NHL's worst record but ended up with the No. 2 choice in the draft after Washington won the lottery. Still, there's no question that, from a purely practical standpoint, the Penguins would have been best-served by a 30th-place finish. That would have maximized their chances of coming out of the lottery with the No. 1 choice, as St. Louis did.

That said, orchestrating a last-place finish is difficult, even dicey, and not just because of legal problems that would arise if a team were suspected of throwing games. It would be foolish for a management team to think its players would buy into the notion of losing games on purpose. Not only because people who make it into pro sports tend to be highly competitive, but because the players could be imperiling their career prospects by making it possible for their team to bring in top-shelf prospects to challenge for their jobs.

If a management team decided to sabotage its season, for whatever reason, the most effective way would be with judicious personnel moves. Trading front-line players for draft choices or prospects, for example, or having the coach experiment with young players in roles where they have no experience. Moves like those could be justified as being in the long-term interest of the franchise, while still serving the short-term objective of inflating the losses total as much as possible.

Q: It is clear the Pens made a mistake with Jocelyn Thibault last year, but do not want to eat his salary. I know his salary is the same if he plays in Pittsburgh or Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but could the Pens demote him to the ECHL? Maybe he would ask for his release rather than play in the low minors. I agree that is an awful thing for an employer to do to an employee. I just want to know if they can do it.

Michael Goldberg, Annapolis, Md.

MOLINARI: Section 13.11 of the collective bargaining agreement that took effect last summer prohibits teams from making moves like the one you put forth. The wording -- "A player who is not in the entry-level system may not be loaned to the East Coast Hockey League, without his consent" -- leaves little, if any, room for interpretation. Given that Thibault probably doesn't lie awake at night fantasizing about bus trips from Wheeling to Reading or Toledo, the chances of him approving a demotion to the ECHL are less than microscopic.

It will be interesting, though, to see how the Penguins deal with their logjam in goal. Once Marc-Andre Fleury is re-signed, the Penguins will have three goalies -- Thibault and Sebastien Caron are the others -- on one-way contracts, and there's very little chance that more than two will be carried on the regular-season roster. (Things could get even more complicated if Dany Sabourin would play so well during training camp that he would merit a place on the major-league depth chart.) The obvious way to thin the congestion would be through a trade, but there probably isn't much of a market for Thibault or Caron. Thibault is coming off hip surgery and was porous in most of his starts last season, while Caron never has established himself as anything more than a decent backup, and there's no shortage of those in the league.

Q: Who are some of the big guys in free agency this season?

Brian, Bethel Park

MOLINARI: There should be plenty of big-name talent on the market July 1, although general manager Ray Shero has made it pretty clear that the Penguins don't plan to get in on the bidding for the highest-priced players. Instead, they figure to concentrate their efforts on signing less-prominent guys to fill holes in their lineup.

If the following high-profile players don't re-sign with their current clubs in the next week, they will be free to offer their services around the league as unrestricted free agents. The list includes forwards Patrik Elias, Doug Weight, Marc Savard, Jason Arnott, Sergei Samsonov, Martin Straka and Brendan Shananan, defensemen Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Nicklas Lidstrom, Rob Blake, Ed Jovanovski, Willie Mitchell, Pavel Kubina and Brendan Witt and goalies Dwayne Roloson, Manny Legace, Cristobal Huet and Martin Gerber.

Q: I know that the salary cap is tied to league revenue and that it is expected to rise for the 2006-2007 season. My question is, if revenue declines the following season, does the cap number go back down? And if so, how would that affect a player who signed for the maximum amount, 20 percent of the team cap?

Noah Lohr, Cranberry

MOLINARI: The issue you raise is strictly hypothetical, at least in the short term, because indications are that the payroll ceiling for 2006-07 will rise to about $44 million, up from $39 million during the season that was just completed. (The payroll minimum is expected to be about $28 million, up from $21 million in 2005-06.)

Should those numbers, which are tied to league-wide revenues, drop at some point in the future, though, they apparently would take the salary of players earning the league maximum down with them. The league's labor deal explicitly says that players who sign a multi-year deal cannot have their salary increase if the payroll ceiling rises. It also makes it pretty clear that no player's compensation can exceed the 20 percent limit under any circumstances, which means someone who signed for the league maximum would have to take a pay cut if the top payroll limit would be reduced.

Q: With the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Fleury and a high pick in this year's entry draft, the Pens are likely to be an NHL powerhouse in the next few years. Do you think the casual hockey fan in Pittsburgh realizes what a shame it would be if the Pens don't get the new arena and the team is moved? Do they know what they stand to lose if this team with so much potential moves to another city?

Paul McCarthy, Harbour Grace, Newfoundland

MOLINARI: Anyone who doesn't recognize the Penguins' potential for greatness either doesn't care or hasn't been paying attention. Their nucleus of young talent is unmatched -- that's what happens when a team is a fixture at the bottom of the overall standings for a half-decade -- and, while that comes with no guarantees, it reinforces the belief that with some sound management and adequate revenues, this franchise could be competing for more than just a playoff berth in a few years. If that happens in Kansas City or Las Vegas or Houston, it won't be because people in this city don't appreciate the team that is being constructed at Mellon Arena.

Indeed, there are people inside the Penguins' organization who contend the public support the team enjoys is one of the major factors to be optimistic that it will remain here if the owners, whoever they prove to be, are offered a favorable arena deal, even if Isle of Capri doesn't get the slots license. Most of the other cities that have shown interest in landing the Penguins have done so because they're looking for an arena tenant, not because their area craves an NHL franchise. The Penguins, conversely, attracted an average crowd of 15,804 -- that's 93.3 percent of capacity -- at Mellon Arena last season despite being perhaps the biggest disappointment in pro hockey. A loyal fan base like that is an asset no owner could walk away from without at least a few misgivings.

Q: Do you know anything about the 24-year-old Minnesota hired to be director of hockey operations? I am 42, and have been following hockey for more years than he has been alive.

Michael Litzenberger, Reading

MOLINARI: Chris Snow, hired by the Wild last week, covered the team briefly for the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis before moving on to a job with the Boston Globe. Because of the limited inter-conference play in the NHL -- and the labor dispute that wiped the 2004-05 season -- the moderator of this forum never met Snow, although colleagues familiar with his work seem to hold him in high regard.

It could be that Snow's hiring by the Wild is evidence that people inside the industry finally have recognized what has been apparent to some for quite a while: That hockey writers are the most intelligent, hard-working, under-appreciated, conscientious, well-mannered, ethical, underpaid and physically attractive people involved in the game. In any capacity, at any level. Of course, that's just a theory ...