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Q: With the Penguins taking Marc-Andre Fleury to arbitration, can GM Ray Shero wait until next summer and do the same with Jordan Staal and Evgeni Malkin? Taking Staal and Malkin to arbitration next year would throw some water on all the restricted free agent chatter going on, or at least provide some breathing room for fans worried about their possible departure.

Steve Grazier, Richmond, Ohio

MOLINARI: Per the league's collective bargaining agreement, neither Malkin nor Staal will be eligible for salary arbitration next summer. Players who sign their first contract between ages 18 and 20 must have four professional seasons on their resume before they can request -- or be taken to -- arbitration.

Club-elected salary arbitration, it should be noted, is a tool that should be used selectively, for a number of reasons:

1) The team is compelled to accept the arbitrator's ruling, regardless of how it feels about it. If, for example, the arbitrator who handles Fleury's case decides he's worth $10 million per season, that's what the Penguins will have to pay him, regardless of how it affects their salary structure or roster makeup. (When a player requests arbitration, the team has the option of walking away from the decision and surrendering its rights to the player, although few do so.)

2) Teams can take no more than two players to arbitration in a given year.

3) Clubs can file for arbitration with a particular player just once during his career, regardless of whether the process actually makes it to the hearing stage. Fleury, for example, is now exempt from future arbitration sought by his employer, even if he works out a deal with the Penguins before a hearing becomes necessary.

4) Even though all concerned profess to understand that this is a business matter, players have been known to take negative information presented about them during hearings personally, and that can have a lasting impact on their relationship with the team for which they work.

Q: What happens in the NHL if a team spends over the salary cap? I believe in the NFL and NBA you can spend over the cap, but are assessed a luxury tax. What is the penalty in the NHL?

Mark, Pittsburgh

MOLINARI: There are no luxury taxes or anything of the sort in the NHL, where exceeding the cap ceiling simply isn't an option. When a team's payroll goes over the limit, it must remove players from its major-league roster -- via trade, waivers, buyout or whatever -- to get down to the designated ceiling for a given season.

(If it were possible to have a larger payroll than the CBA permits simply by paying a tax, there's every reason to believe that some of the league's traditionally free-spending franchises would accept such a tax as the cost of doing business, effectively undermining the concept of establishing a reasonably level economic playing field for all teams.)

Also, if a team is found to have circumvented the ceiling -- if, say, the Penguins would pay Malkin $5 million to write a blog for their website in addition to whatever salary his contract calls for -- it is subject to fines of no less than $1 million, loss of draft choices and forfeiture of games. There also are severe penalties for any player and/or agent who would be involved in such a circumvention.

Q: The Post-Gazette reported that the Pens traded their first-, second- and third-round picks from this year's draft and won't pick until the fourth round at 120. I believe the Pens traded a fifth-rounder, not their third. And wouldn't the Pens be picking 119th, 149th, 179th, 209th?

Kevin, St. George, Ontario, Canada

MOLINARI: The draft order deviates slightly from what would otherwise be expected because Phoenix was awarded a compensatory choice in the second round (No. 35 overall) after its No. 1 selection in 2004, forward Blake Wheeler, did not sign with the Coyotes. That pushed all subsequent choices back one slot.

Also, the Penguins' third-round choice for Saturday's draft was sent to the Coyotes in the Georges Laraque trade in 2007, while the fifth-rounder sent to Toronto for Hal Gill (along a second-round choice this year) is from 2009.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In last week's Q&A, the initial posting of the NHL's compensation chart for restricted free agents reflected figures that had not been adjusted since the league's collective bargaining agreement took effect. The updated chart:

Below $863,156 -- No compensation.

$863,156 to $1,307,812 -- Third-round draft choice.

$1,307,812 to $2,615,625 -- Second-round choice.

$2,615,625 to $3,923,437 -- First- and third-round choices.

$3,923,437 to $5,231,249 -- First-, second and third-round choices.

$5,231,249 to $6,539,062 -- Two first-rounders, a No. 2 and a No. 3.

$6,539,062 or more - Four No. 1 choices.