from Matt Larkin of The Hockey ews,

The Ask Me Anything Mailbag is back after a long layoff, and I thank you, readers, for blitzing me with enough top-notch questions that I could’ve included 20 here. I pared the list down to five, primarily looking ahead to the off-season but also addressing the elephant – or zebra – in the room.

Which team will be the most active with trades, transactions, buyout etc. leading up to the draft in Vancouver?

The Nashville Predators went from Stanley Cup final to Presidents’ Trophy to first-round exit over the past three seasons and, after giving his team a vote of confidence with minimal changes last off-season, GM David Poile should be aggressive this time. Don’t be surprised if he swings a major trade to break up the blueline Big Four of Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm and P.K. Subban, with Subban the likeliest name to go for reasons I outlined here.

But the team I expect to be the most active of all? It’s the one rumored as a potential trade partner with the Preds, the Pittsburgh Penguins. General manager Jim Rutherford is a smart man and likely sees that his Penguins, after being swept in Round 1 of the playoffs, resemble the 2017 Blackhawks, a top-heavy, star-studded empire that began to crumble, got swept in Round 1 and ended up with two straight playoff misses after that. Sidney Crosby turns 32 in August. He showed this season he’s still an elite player, but he only has so many prime seasons left. To give Pittsburgh another shot at the Stanley Cup in the Crosby era, Rutherford must (a) make major moves to upgrade his team immediately or (b) deliberately weaken his team by dumping a star for futures in hopes of quickly replenishing Pittsburgh’s farm system, which is the league’s most barren, and providing some higher-upside reinforcements to join Crosby in a year or two. Chicago seems to be attempting option (b), building around a new core of Alex DeBrincat, Adam Boqvist, Dylan Strome and Henri Jokiharju, which might ascend quickly enough to make that team relevant again while Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have good years left.

more plus four more questions and answers including Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko at #1...