NEW YORK - Sidney Crosby, Gilbert Brule and hundreds of other future NHL prospects will have to wait a while longer for their names to be called - over the phone.
The NHL lockout claimed yet another victim Thursday, wiping out Ottawa's plans to host the June 25-26 draft. The league has been consistent in saying it would not hold a draft until a collective bargaining agreement would be in place. Once that happens, the league will hold the draft via conference call.
There remains, however, a slight chance that a scaled-down version of the draft be held in Ottawa if a CBA is reached in the near future. Sources indicate that version of a mini-draft would probably only feature two rounds and only the top prospects would be invited to Ottawa. The rest of the draft would be done by conference call.
Ottawa Senators president and CEO Roy Mlakar said his team would be ready for anything.
"Let me put it this way, if we were asked to host one by the National Hockey League and by the National Hockey League Players' Association, we would try and become as helpful as possible," he said Thursday.
Either way, the full event is gone, Ottawa's hotels no longer able to wait. Mlakar said Thursday that some 4,500 rooms had been blocked off for the draft.
"If you're going to continue to block off those rooms, it's going to cost our business partners just too many business dollars," Mlakar said.
The NHL has not awarded the draft past 2005, although it's likely applications have already been made by other cities for 2006 and 2007. The NHL has promised to return the draft to Ottawa at some point in time, "as soon as is feasible," the league said in a statement Thursday.
That echoed what commissioner Gary Bettman told Mlakar on Monday night.
"Gary has said he recognizes that this is going to be not looked at very favourably by people in Ottawa and he will remember to his very best paying us back the favour down the line," Mlakar said. "But he did not commit a specific year for Ottawa."
There are conflicting views on how losing the draft will hurt Ottawa.
"The draft is usually expected to attract 3,000 visitors to the city," Mlakar said. "It could generate an impact of a loss of about $15 million - it is estimated."
But Jacques Burelle, the president and COO of Ottawa Tourism and Convention Authority, downplayed the financial hit.
"It doesn't have that much of an economic impact," he said from Ottawa. "The fact that 30 teams would have been here for three or four days and hotel rooms and using the Corel Centre, that's not a big amount of business. The hit is more from the visibility angle in the sense that the draft would have been broadcast across this country and throughout North America.
"What also hurts is that the draft in previous years has been the precursor to that city getting awarded the all-star game, they kind of use the draft as a dry run or test run."
An all-star game remains a goal for the Senators, Mlakar said.
"I've been on my knees for all-star in Ottawa for almost 10 years. It would be fabulous," he said.
Atlanta lost this year's all-star game and will need to be compensated as well.
The draft is a major loss for the Senators, who were hoping to host the draft that would welcome Crosby into the NHL fold.
"I'd be lying if I didn't tell you the league hadn't approached us many times about holding the draft and we were certainly looking to this year," he said. "The impact of Sidney Crosby and the universal publicity that he has generated would have been fabulous for Ottawa, to welcome him and see him put on a jersey - preferably a Senators one."
But Mlakar is in no way surprised at Thursday's announcement.
"I knew that if we didn't have a collectively bargained agreement that this was going to be the next step," he said. "There's no sense hiding it."
It was another black day in a year full of many for the industry.
"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 Thursday.
"We apologize, as well, to the City of Ottawa, to the entire National Capital Region, and to everyone who already had put so much time and effort into creating a memorable weekend for the players and their families."