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Q: Arron Asham said this about Matt Cooke while accusing Cooke of biting him during a game Jan. 24: "I've got no respect for him. You wish a guy had a little more class, but that's every game with him. You think, 'You bite somebody, you have to fight back,' but not this guy. He's a chicken." So, when Ray Shero was about to sign Asham, did he have Matt call Arron to make sure everything is OK? Will Dan Bylsma have the players sit down and put the past in the past? How does this situation work without causing lots of locker-room pain and turmoil?

Pete Wilton, Oakmont

MOLINARI: If the NHL had a rule that dictated that Cooke could only play with guys who never said (or at least thought) something unflattering about him, you'd be hard-pressed to find enough men to fill out a golf foursome, let alone a hockey team. Cooke consistently straddles the line between aggressive and dirty play, and blatantly crosses it occasionally. That might help to win games, but it doesn't win many friends on other clubs.

While it's not known whether Cooke and Asham have spoken since Asham joined the Penguins last week, there's not much reason to believe they have. They hardly are the first guys to end up on the same team after having had an unpleasant run-in or two in previous seasons. (In that vein, wouldn't it have been fun to see Ulf Samuelsson and Cam Neely share a locker room at some point?)

If there still are raw feelings between Asham and Cooke, the situation can be addressed in a conversation over lunch during training camp. Nobody's expecting them to become best friends; they're teammates, and both have been around the game long enough to bury any issues that might interfere with that.

Q: Is there anything in the collective bargaining agreement prohibiting teams from inviting unrestricted free agents to practice with the team? Say, for instance, the Penguins had the cap space and were considering going after Ilya Kovalchuk for the sole purpose of him be Crosby's go-to guy. On paper, it looks great, but as with Petr Sykora, it sometimes doesn't work out as well on the ice. If I were an owner and I was considering making this kind of investment, I would want to know exactly what I was getting into. This would not only allow the team to see how well Crosby and Kovalchuk mesh, but also allow them to see his practice and workout habits and also how well he fits in with the rest of the locker room. Players would also get to know exactly what they are getting into as well, so it could be a win/win situation.

Adam Smith, Nitro, W. Va.

MOLINARI: Unrestricted free agents routinely practice with NHL clubs, but they tend to be guys who are fighting to stay in the league, not players with Kovalchuk's pedigree. (Adam Hall, who earned a job with the Penguins in 2007 after going to training camp on a tryout, is one example that comes immediately to mind.)

Big-ticket talents like Kovalchuk have leverage that spares them the potentially humbling experience of auditioning for prospective employers by going to a camp without a contract. (That doesn't mean, though, GMs wouldn't love to see how a guy who's going to be pulling down a seven-figure salary would fit in, on and off the ice, before agreeing to turn over all that money. They just shouldn't ever expect it to happen.)

Q: Given the trend of giving 15- to 17-year contracts to minimize their cap hit, do you think Ray Shero should re-sign Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for 15 years? Many analysts are saying that the long-term contract loophole will be eliminated in the next CBA, so there is not a lot of time for him to take advantage of this situation.

Claire Sinks, Laurel, Md.

MOLINARI: The point is moot, because the CBA stipulates that teams are not allowed to negotiate new contracts until a year before a player's current one expires, so Shero is barred from working out another deal for Crosby until at least July 1, 2012 and for Malkin until a year after that.

However, there are several factors to consider when contemplating the merits of an agreement that runs for a decade or so. First, as evidenced by the NHL's decision to invalidate Kovalchuk's 17-year, $102 million contract with New Jersey after concluding that it was structured in a way intended to circumvent the cap guidelines laid out in the CBA, the league has demonstrated that it finally is willing to exercise the authority it has to throw out deals structured to be in effect long after the player is likely to have left the game.

Then there is the matter of injuries. As the New York Islanders, who signed goalie Rick DiPietro to a 15-year, $67.5 million in 2006 have learned, having a deal in place doesn't necessarily translate to having the player in the lineup. A series of physical problems have limited DiPietro to 13 appearances during the past two seasons, so New York hasn't gotten much of a return on its investment (although it's possible that insurance has picked up at least some of the tab.)

Finally, even if a club is willing to accept the risks and make a long-term commitment to a player, nothing is going to happen unless the player is receptive to the idea, because teams don't have the power to unilaterally impose contract terms. If Crosby or Malkin wouldn't want to lock himself in to playing for the Penguins for the balance of his career, there's nothing Shero could do to compel the player to do so.

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