NO IT WILL NOT!!!
it's a different format, it will NOT PLAY HD DVD's. The sales guy lied to you, big surprise, that's what sales guys do. How many sales guys have you ever met that really knew what they were talking about anyway? More than half the stores i walk into, i usually find out that i know more than the sales guy. This goes for most any sales positions as well, not just A/V.
Granted, labeling the model name with the letters HD in the name is a bit duplicidious, but it's not false advertising at all. It's not an item description, it's the name of a model. But you're right, you shouldn't buy an HD DVD player for about 2 years. For one, the price tag's not gonna be worth it in it's debut considering you know in about a year it'll drop by more than half. And two, you should let the format war between blue ray, and hd dvd play out and see who really comes out on top. We can speculate all we want now, but only time tells how reality really sets in.