The National Lacrosse League announced today that it will conduct a dispersal draft of the Montreal Express' players, to be held the morning of the league's annual entry draft.

The twelve clubs which remain after Montreal's one-year suspension of operations, announced earlier this month, will select from among twenty-three Express players in a two-round draft on Saturday, 21 September.

The dispersal draft was chosen in lieu of declaring all Express players unrestricted free agents, as the Professional Lacrosse Players Association reportedly had requested.

Teams will select Express players in reverse order of the 2001-2002 league standings, so that the Calgary Roughnecks will draft first, followed by the Ottawa Rebel.

After the two 4-12 clubs make their picks, Columbus, New Jersey, and New York will select, rounding out the top five. Buffalo, Philadelphia, Colorado, Vancouver, and Rochester complete the top ten, with league runner-up Albany drafting eleventh and champion Toronto picking twelfth. The order then repeats for a second round.

Teams are not obligated to make a selection in the dispersal draft; those which do must immediately release a player from its 23-man roster from the end of this past season.

The runners eligible to be drafted are Zac Aitken, Bruce Alexander, D'Arcy Berthiaume, Aime Caines, Bruce Codd, Jason Crosbie, Ted Dowling, Mat Giles, Ryan Gray, Dean Harrison, Tracey Kelusky, Travis Kilgour, Peter Lough, Brad MacArthur, Eric Pacey, Shawn Parnell, Steve Penny, Todd Richard, Brandon Sanderson, Kelly Sullivan, and Shawn Zettel. Goaltenders Curtis Palidwor and Alain Lalumiere are also available.

With the free agent signing period set to begin tomorrow, several Express players are subject to special free agency. Dowling, previously tagged a franchise player by Montreal, is an unrestricted free agent until draft day. If a team signs him before then, it must forfeit its first-round pick in the dispersal draft.

Harrison and Kilgour are temporarily unrestricted free agents, available to be selected in the dispersal draft if they haven't already signed with a team. If drafted, they will revert to their original restricted free agent status.

Alexander, Codd, Giles, and Crosbie all qualify for restricted free agency, although they are not allowed to sign with a team before the dispersal draft. Teams which select these players are drafting the right to match an offer made to that player by another club.

The following players are free agents (unrestricted unless noted):

ALBANY ATTACK
    Brian Beisel (RFA)
    Mark Cochrane (RFA)
    Charlie Parsons
    Ryan Sanderson (RFA)
    Aaron Wilson
BUFFALO BANDITS
    Ryan Curtis
    Randy Fraser
    Rich Kilgour
CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
    Dan Denihan
    Todd Katanchik (RFA)
    Jason Wulder
COLORADO NO-NAMES
    Neil Doddridge
    Jesse Hubbard (RFA)
    John Rosa
    Rob Shek
    Scott Urick
COLUMBUS LANDSHARKS
    Chris Levis (RFA)
    Neal Powless (RFA)
MONTREAL EXPRESS
    Bruce Alexander (SRFA)
    Fayaz Bardai
    Bruce Codd (SRFA)
    Jason Crosbie (SRFA)
    Ted Dowling
    Matt Giles (SRFA)
    Dean Harrison (SRFA)
    Travis Kilgour (SRFA)
NEW JERSEY STORM
    Cam Bomberry (RFA)
    Michael Busza (RFA)
    Derek General (RFA)
    Derek Graham
    Nick Hartofolis
    Blake Miller (RFA)
    Matt Panetta
    Andy Piazza
    Gordon Purdie
    Steve Sombrotto
    Dallas Squire (RFA)
    Sean Steinwald
    Paul Talmo
NEW YORK SAINTS
    Matt Caione
    Tim Gottelmann
    Tim Langton (RFA)
    Darren Lowe (RFA)
    Kevin Lowe (RFA)
    Chase Martin
    Pete Ragosa
OTTAWA REBEL
    Mike Benedict (RFA)
    Ross Cowie (RFA)
    Matt Disher (RFA)
    John Fay (RFA)
    Rory Graham (RFA)
    Charlie Lockwood (RFA)
PHILADELPHIA WINGS
    Tom Phair
    Tom Ryan
    Greg Traynor (RFA)
ROCHESTER KNIGHTHAWKS
    Pat Cougevan (RFA)
    Rodney Tapp
TORONTO ROCK
    Terry Bullen
    Darryl Gibson (RFA)
VANCOUVER RAVENS
    Tyson Leies (RFA)
    Dwight Maetche
    Rob Williams (RFA)

John Tavares (Buffalo), Paul Cantabene (Colorado), Gary Gait (Colorado), Dallas Eliuk (Philadelphia), Tom Marechek (Philadelphia), Duane Jacobs (Rochester), and Jim Veltman (Toronto) have been named as franchise players by their teams. These players are ineligible for unrestricted free agency this offseason -- several were not eligible anyway -- but are now guaranteed a salary of $20,625 (American) this coming season, ten percent more than the $18,750 they otherwise could have received.