Junior Hockey Baron Takes a Shot at Sidney Crosby

We've all heard about greedy, spoiled athletes. But these days it's often the team owners and executives who are deluded by a false sense of entitlement.

The owner of a junior hockey team in Vancouver is upset because Sidney Crosby has pulled out of the Top Prospects Game, an exhibition game taking place in Vancouver.

''For the guy who wants to be the next Wayne Gretzky ... the history of Wayne Gretzky is that he would be here with one leg if that's what it took because it's good for the game,'' Ron Toigo, the owner of the Vancouver Giants, told reporters.

Crosby is the biggest star in Canadian junior hockey, and his face was used to market tonight's game. But he says he's injured and can't play.

The Top Prospects Game is of no consequence. It's a made-for-TV event designed to show off players eligible for the next NHL Entry Draft. It's also a big night for the host team, and when the biggest name in teenaged hockey pulls out at the last minute, it does not go over well with the man selling the "product."

Toigo blamed Crosby's team, the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Junior League, for not making him available, calling the decision ''unfortunate, very small-market minded and a real disappointment to all of us here.''

Someone needs to remind Toigo that Canada's junior hockey industry lives off the sweat of free teenaged labor. Owners like him take in the bucks at the box office, while players are paid nothing except a small weekly per diem.

Toigo and his fellow owners should consider themselves lucky that Crosby and other young stars agree to prop up such a system. He might think twice before questioning the integrity of a player who has done more than anyone to market the junior game.

Sidney Crosby's agent has hinted that if the NHL lockout continues into next season, Crosby might turn pro in Europe rather than return for another year of junior hockey. If Ron Toigo's sweatshop mentality is typical of Canada's junior leagues, it would be an easy decision to make.

Postscript: In a sign of his soaring popularity, a Sidney Crosby jersey has just sold for $22,100 on Ebay. A medical supply company was the high bidder for one of his Team Canada jersies worn at the World Junior Hockey Championship. The sale was conducted by Hockey Canada, which also auctioned jersies and items from other members of the World Junior team. Proceeds were divided between youth hockey programs and South Asian Tsunami relief.