| 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 |
| Games | 0 |
| Teams | 30 |
| TV partner(s) | CBC,TSN,RDS (Canada) ESPN,[a]NBC (United States) |
| Draft | |
| Top draft pick | Alexander Ovechkin |
| Picked by | Washington Capitals |
| Stanley Cup | |
| Champions | Not awarded due to an unresolvedlockout |
| NHL seasons | |
The2004–05 NHL season would have been theNational Hockey League's88th season of play. The entire 1,230-game schedule, that was set to begin in October, was officially canceled on February 16, 2005, due to an unresolvedlockout that began on September 16, 2004. Theloss 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 alabor dispute, the first being the1994–95 MLB strike.[1] It was the first time since1919, when theSpanish flu pandemic canceled the finals, that theStanley Cup was not awarded.[2] This canceled season was later acknowledged with the words "2004–05 Season Not Played" engraved on the Cup.[3]
According to theInternational Ice Hockey Federation, 388 NHL players were on teams overseas at some point during the season, spread across 19 European leagues.[4] 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.[5]
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, theAmerican 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.
The2004 NHL entry draft, the last NHL event to take place before the lockout, was held on June 26 and 27, 2004 at theRBC Center inRaleigh, North Carolina.Alexander Ovechkin was selected first overall by theWashington Capitals.
On September 16, 2004, the NHL initiated alockout of theNational Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) after the existingNHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) expired one day earlier. The action marked the thirdlabour dispute between the league and the NHLPA in twelve years, following the1992 strike and the1994–95 lockout. The league attempted to convince the players to accept asalary cap to limit expenditure on player salaries, linking the cap to league revenues and thus guaranteeing the clubs what the league calledcost certainty.[6] According to an NHL-commissioned report prepared by formerU.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairmanArthur Levitt, prior to 2004–05, NHL clubs spent about 76 percent of their gross revenues on players' salaries – a figure far higher than those in other North American sports – and collectively lost US$273 million during the2002–03 season.[7] On July 20, 2004, the league presented the NHLPA with six concepts to achieve cost certainty.[8] These concepts were believed to have included ahard, or inflexible, salary cap similar to the one used in theNational Football League, asoft salary cap with some capped exceptions similar to the one used in theNational Basketball Association, and a centralized salary negotiation system similar to that used in theArena Football League andMajor League Soccer.[9]
The NHLPA, under executive directorBob Goodenow, however disputed the league's financial claims and rejected each of the NHL's proposed six concepts. The NHLPA preferred to retain the existing "marketplace" system where players individually negotiate contracts with teams, and teams have complete control of how much they want to spend on players. Goodenow's mistrust of the league was supported by a November 2004Forbes report that estimated the NHL's losses were less than half the amounts claimed by the league.[10] Although the NHL's numbers regarding financial losses were disputed, there was no question that several franchises were losing money: some had already declared bankruptcy, and others had held "fire sales" of franchise players, such as theWashington Capitals. Some small-market teams, such as thePittsburgh Penguins and the remaining small-market Canadian teams, were actually hopingfor a lockout, since those teams would make more money by losing a season.[11]
During the lockout, further attempts to negotiate a new CBA floundered. By February 14, the union made an offer to accept a $52 million salary cap under the condition that it was not linked to league revenues, to which the league proposed a counteroffer of a $40 million cap plus $2.2 million in benefits, which the players association rejected. The next day, Bettman sent Goodenow a letter with a final proposal of a $42.5 million cap plus $2.2 million in benefits, setting a deadline of 11:00 the next morning to accept or refuse the offer. The NHLPA presented a counter-offer involving a $49 million cap, which the league rejected.[12] With no resolution by the 11:00 deadline, NHL commissionGary Bettman announced the cancellation of the 2004–05 season on February 16, 2005, making the NHL the first major professional sports league in North America to cancel an entire season because of a labor dispute; the announcement was to have come on February 14, but it was delayed because of the death of the patriarch of theSutter hockey family four days prior, whose funeral was held on February 15.
With the prospect of losing a second season, a deal was eventually reached on July 13. The salary cap would be adjusted each year to guarantee players 54 percent of total NHL revenues, and there would also be a salary floor. Player contracts are alsoguaranteed. The players' share increased if revenues rise to specific benchmarks, while revenue sharing splited a pool of money from the 10 highest-grossing teams among the bottom 15. There was a $39 million cap in place for the first year of the CBA.[13]
The 2005All-Star Game was originally scheduled to take place on February 13 atPhilips Arena inAtlanta, Georgia, the home arena of theAtlanta Thrashers. With negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA stalled, the league announced the game's cancellation on November 3.[14] Atlanta would later host the2008 All-Star Game.
As a result of the lockout, no Stanley Cup champion was crowned for the first time since theSpanish flu pandemic in1919. This was controversial among many fans, who questioned whether the NHL had exclusive control over the Cup. A website known as freestanley.com (since closed) was launched, asking fans to write to the Cup trustees and urge them to return to the original pre-NHL Challenge Cup format.[15]Adrienne Clarkson, then Governor General of Canada, alternately proposed that the Cup be presented to the top women's hockey team in lieu of the NHL season, but this idea was so unpopular with NHL fans, players, and officials that theClarkson Cup was created instead.[16] Meanwhile, a group in Ontario, also known as the "Wednesday Nighters", filed an application with the Ontario Superior Court, claiming that the Cup trustees had overstepped their bounds in signing the 1947 agreement with the NHL, and therefore must award the trophy to any team willing to play for the cup regardless of the lockout.[17]
On February 7, 2006, a settlement was reached in which the trophy could be awarded to non-NHL teams in the event the league does not operate for a season, but the dispute lasted so long that, by the time it was settled, the NHL had resumed operating for the2005–06 season, and the Stanley Cup went unclaimed for the 2004–05 season.[18]
Before the lockout, the NHL had reached two separate deals withNBC (who would replaceABC as the NHL's American national broadcast television partner) andESPN. ESPN offered to televise 40 games (only fifteen of which would be during the regular season), all onESPN2, with presumably only some midweek playoff games, the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals and the All-Star Game airing on ESPN. NBC's deal involved arevenue sharing agreement with the NHL as opposed to a traditional rights fee, and included rights to six regular season windows, seven postseason broadcasts and games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. ESPN had a two-year deal that they opted out of after the lockout, leaving the NHL without a U.S. cable partner.
During the lockout, CBC replacedHockey Night in Canada with a block of Saturday night movies branded asMovie Night in Canada, hosted byRon MacLean from various junior hockey venues.TSN had other sports programming to fill their time slots.