Sidney Crosby: NHL Prospect, National Hero, Junior Hockey Puppet

Canadian junior hockey sure is a heck of a deal for a teenaged athlete.

You supply the world-class talent, the spectacular scoring, the great moves, the winning personality. The team uses you to sell tickets, promote the league and rake in the cash.

In return, you get a tiny weekly per diem and a university scholarship.

And once you're in, you can't play anywhere else. Not unless your carcass is bartered to the National Hockey League.

That's the enviable situation facing hockey's most famous 17-year-old.

Sidney Crosby earns his hype. He's running away with the scoring race in the Quebec Major Jumior Hockey League, as expected. He's been ranked number one among prospects for the 2005 NHL Entry Draft since he was old enough to tie his own laces. He dominated players two years older than himself at the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championship.

So it's about time someone reminded him that his talent is not his own. Crosby is indentured labor until the flesh traders say otherwise.

The commissioner of the Quebec League says Crosby has no choice but to play junior hockey next season if the NHL lockout continues.

"The only thing I can say is he's under contract with Rimouski and the QMJHL for the next three years," Gilles Courteau told Canadian Press. "If there's no NHL, I don't know what Sidney's going to do, but I know on our side that according to his contract he has to come back."

There has been talk that Crosby will turn pro in Europe if he can't play in the NHL. But Courteau says it's not possible.

"There's no out clauses for him. He signed a standard player contract, the same as all other players in the league."

Interesting to note that Crosby's agent declined to comment on the matter. But it's easy to see this one ending in a court challenge. If it does, Courteau and his fellow junior hockey barons could be in for a rude awakening.