2004–05 NHL season
The 2004–05 NHL season was the National Hockey League's 88th season of operation. The entire 1,230-game schedule, that was set to begin in October, was officially canceled on February 16, 2005 due to an unresolved lockout that began on September 16, 2004. The loss of the 2004–05 season's games made the NHL the second North American professional sports league to lose an entire postseason of games because of a labor dispute, the first being the 1994–95 MLB strike, which occurred 10 years prior. It was the first time since 1919, when a Spanish flu pandemic canceled the finals, that the Stanley Cup was not awarded. This canceled season was later acknowledged with the words "2004–05 Season Not Played" engraved on the Cup.
| 2004–05 NHL season | |
|---|---|
The Stanley Cup acknowledges the canceled 2004–05 season with the words, "2004–05 Season Not Played" | |
| League | National Hockey League |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Number of games | 0 |
| Number of teams | 30 |
| TV partner(s) | CBC, TSN, RDS (Canada) ESPN, NBC (United States) |
| Draft | |
| Top draft pick | Alexander Ovechkin |
| Picked by | Washington Capitals |
| Stanley Cup | |
| Champions | N/A |
According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, 388 NHL players were on teams overseas at some point during the season, spread across 19 European leagues. Many of these players had a contract clause to return to the NHL when the league started up again, even if it was during the current season.
Key rule changes which would dominate after the lockout were established as a result of a meeting between the NHL and its top minor league, the American Hockey League. On July 5, 2004, the AHL announced publicly the 2004–05 rule changes, many of which were passed as a result of the NHL's recommendation for experimentation.