hawksfan50 said:
Re: Vanman's scenario of a Nov 2005 CBA agreement:
In that scenario--the 2005 would be put off till the next draft date (ie. June 2006)QUOTE]
But can they legally not allow age elligible players to play? IMO (not a lawyer) a restraint of trade law could kick in to play. It would be equivalent to the current players and management agreeing to not allow anyone else to play even if it was for a fixed period of time (almost a year)
I doubt restraint of trade has anything to do with what might flow out of the league being unable to draft due to expiry of the CBA - after all, if it happens it will be because they are in a lockout situation - nobody (unless they go to scabs which can't happen under US law for a defined period) is going to be playing.
Having said that, I suspect they will push the draft back to when they have a CBA in place, then draft for 2005 (whenever it happens) based on some sort of agreed rankings (maybe the same as 2004?), and then get back to routine for 2006.
All of this is smoke and mirrors, however, as nobody has any idea if or for how long the lockout will actually take. There are a lot of reasons not to let it extend through a full season.