The 2004–05 Deutsche Eishockey Liga season was the 11th season since the founding of the

Deutsche Eishockey Liga The Deutsche Eishockey Liga (for sponsorship reasons called "PENNY Deutsche Eishockey Liga") (; English: ''German Ice Hockey League'') or DEL, is a German professional ice hockey league and the highest division in German ice hockey. Founded in ...

( en, German Ice Hockey League). The

Eisbären Berlin Eisbären Berlin (; English: ''Berlin Polar Bears'') is a professional ice hockey team based in Berlin, Germany. The team competes in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the highest level of play in professional German ice hockey, and is also one ...

( en, Polar Bears Berlin) became first time German Champion, a feat they will repeat a number of times in the next seasons. The

Kassel Huskies The EC Kassel Huskies are a professional ice hockey club based in Kassel, Hessen, Germany. The club currently competes in DEL2, the second level of ice hockey in Germany. The Huskies were founded in 1977 and have competed in the top five levels o ...

was allowed to stay in the league, despite losing the play-down, as

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg Grizzlys Wolfsburg are a professional ice hockey club of the Germany, German professional ice hockey league Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They play their games at Eisarena Wolfsburg, Eisarena in Wolfsburg. History Wolfsburg earned their first promoti ...

lost its DEL license. The season was significant, due to the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

lockout Lockout may refer to: * Lockout (industry), a type of work stoppage **Dublin Lockout, a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers 1913 - 1914 * Lockout (sports), lockout in sports leagues **MLB lockout, lock ...

. 22 NHL players came to play the season in the DEL, with the

Iserlohn Roosters The Iserlohn Roosters are a professional ice hockey team based in Iserlohn, North Rhine-Westphalia. They are members of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) since 2000 and play their home games at the Eissporthalle Iserlohn which is also known as '' ...

making the first move by signing up

Mike York Michael Allan York (born January 3, 1978) is an American former professional ice hockey left winger. He last played and captained the Iserlohn Roosters of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Playing career York was born in Waterford, Michigan. ...

. Several German national team players came as well --

Marco Sturm Marco Johann Sturm (born September 8, 1978) is a German professional ice hockey coach and former winger who played in the National Hockey League and Deutsche Eishockey Liga. He is currently the Head Coach of the Ontario Reign. Sturm began his ca ...

Jochen Hecht Jochen Thomas Hecht (born 21 June 1977) is a German ice hockey coach and a former professional ice hockey player. He has been serving as assistant coach for Adler Mannheim since March 2022. Hecht played 833 games in the National Hockey League ( ...

and

Olaf Kölzig Olaf Kölzig (born 6 April 1970) is a South African-born German former professional ice hockey goaltender and current goaltender coach and player development coach for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). With the excepti ...

. Other significant signings included Stéphane Robidas and

Doug Weight Douglas Daniel Weight (born January 21, 1971) is an American professional ice hockey coach, executive and former player. He is also the former head coach and assistant general manager for the New York Islanders. During his 19-year National Hockey ...

midseason signups for the previous season champion the

Frankfurt Lions The Frankfurt Lions were a German professional men's ice hockey club from Frankfurt, Germany that played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The club ceased operations in 2010 due to financial difficulty. History The hockey team was founded as a se ...

Erik Cole Erik Thomas Cole (born November 6, 1978) is an American former professional ice hockey winger (ice hockey), left winger. Originally drafted by the Hurricanes in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Cole played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League, NHL f ...

, who would have been playing with the

Carolina Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes (colloquially known as the Canes) are a professional ice hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, ...

, was named MVP of the playoffs with the

Regular season

The regular season was played from September 17, 2004 to March 13, 2005.Allemagne 2005
hockeyarchives.info (fr) GP = Games played; GF:GA = Goals for and against
Color code: = Direct Playoff qualification, = Playoff qualification round, = No playoff

Playdowns

The two last placed,

and

played a "playdown" in a

Best-of-seven There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly k ...

series starting March 18, 2005. The Kassel Huskies were set to be relegated to the 2. Bundesliga, but due to the Grizzly Adams losing their DEL license, they were allowed to stay. The Grizzly Adams lost the license as their new Arena was not finished in time, and the old one did not conform to the DEL rules.

Playoffs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2004-05 Deutsche Eishockey Liga Season Deutsche Eishockey Liga seasons

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes th ...