The NHL made it official on Thursday, cancelling the 2005 Entry Draft.
With no new collective bargaining agreement in sight, the league decided to cancel the draft and as a result, hockey phenom Sidney Crosby won't hear his name announced as the No. 1 overall pick in Ottawa, the city scheduled to hold the event.
"We apologize to the fans who had planned to attend this great event or participate in draft parties both at their local NHL arenas and elsewhere," Bill Daly, NHL executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said in a statement.
The draft was scheduled for June 25-26 at the Corel Centre. The NHL said Ottawa will host a draft sometime in the future.
Throughout the lockout process, the NHL maintained it would not hold an entry draft unless a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' association was in place.
"In the absence of a collective bargaining agreement, we are not able to conduct an entry draft in the traditional sense on the dates scheduled," Daly added.
All of this puts the future of Crosby, the most-heralded hockey prospect since Eric Lindros, in doubt.
Crosby recently won the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League scoring title with the Rimouski Oceanic by over 50 points and was expected to be the top pick in the 2005 draft.
The NHL was under pressure to make the cancellation announcement because Ottawa-area hotels needed advance confirmation of rooms that would have been booked for hundreds of draft hopefuls and their families.
League and players' union officials renewed labour talks last week in New York when the NHL tabled two new proposals.
One of the offers included a $37.5 million US team salary cap with no "linkage" while the other capped player costs at 54 per cent of league revenues. The $37.5 million cap is $5 million less than the final offer the league put forth last month before NHL commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled the season on Feb. 16.
There was no clear indication of how the meeting went, but the NHLPA's executive committee assembled this past week at an undisclosed location for a three-day strategy session to plan its next course of action.
With no new collective bargaining agreement in sight, the league decided to cancel the draft and as a result, hockey phenom Sidney Crosby won't hear his name announced as the No. 1 overall pick in Ottawa, the city scheduled to hold the event.
"We apologize to the fans who had planned to attend this great event or participate in draft parties both at their local NHL arenas and elsewhere," Bill Daly, NHL executive vice-president and chief legal officer, said in a statement.
The draft was scheduled for June 25-26 at the Corel Centre. The NHL said Ottawa will host a draft sometime in the future.
Throughout the lockout process, the NHL maintained it would not hold an entry draft unless a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' association was in place.
"In the absence of a collective bargaining agreement, we are not able to conduct an entry draft in the traditional sense on the dates scheduled," Daly added.
All of this puts the future of Crosby, the most-heralded hockey prospect since Eric Lindros, in doubt.
Crosby recently won the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League scoring title with the Rimouski Oceanic by over 50 points and was expected to be the top pick in the 2005 draft.
The NHL was under pressure to make the cancellation announcement because Ottawa-area hotels needed advance confirmation of rooms that would have been booked for hundreds of draft hopefuls and their families.
League and players' union officials renewed labour talks last week in New York when the NHL tabled two new proposals.
One of the offers included a $37.5 million US team salary cap with no "linkage" while the other capped player costs at 54 per cent of league revenues. The $37.5 million cap is $5 million less than the final offer the league put forth last month before NHL commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled the season on Feb. 16.
There was no clear indication of how the meeting went, but the NHLPA's executive committee assembled this past week at an undisclosed location for a three-day strategy session to plan its next course of action.
