from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

- from what I’m hearing, there is some consensus developing around the top four or five. Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko are one-two, with Kaako widening eyes in the early days of the world championships. (Thumbs up to New Jersey’s social media team for lusting after both players on its Twitter feed. Very good.) The Rangers at number two can relax and be happy with whatever they get.

A few teams I spoke with believe WHL Vancouver defenceman Bowen Byram and U.S. National Team Development Program centre Alex Turcotte are separating themselves at three and four, although Sam thinks one of Turcotte’s teammates — centre Trevor Zegras — is in that group. Sixth on his list is WHL Lethbridge centre Dylan Cozens.

That brings us to No. 7....

- A couple of executives who said there was definitely something to the Evgeni Malkin trade rumours think those will die down. “If their goal was to rattle his cage,” one said, “he got the message.” When Malkin arrived at the world championships, the future Hall-of-Famer told reporter Simon Galkevich, “I had a bad season…Sometimes criticism is justified. This time it’s probably justified.” Malkin also controls his future.

- Is Tyler Myers’ departure from Winnipeg a guarantee? A lot of us assumed so, but this may depend on if the Jets trade Jacob Trouba, and, if so, what comes back in return. (The betting line is Trouba does get dealt, but we’ve all lost wagers before.) It’s hard to see GM Kevin Cheveldayoff losing both without acceptable cover. It will be challenging for the Jets to match what Myers can get in free agency, but he’s spoken very highly of the organization and it wouldn’t be a stunner if he tried to make it work.

more on the first topic listed plus other hockey Thoughts...