The 2004–05 NHL season would have been the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
's
88th 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 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
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
dispute, the first being the
1994–95 MLB strike, which occurred 10 years prior. It was the first time since
1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...
, when the
Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...
pandemic canceled the finals, that the
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...
was not awarded. This canceled season was later acknowledged with the words "2004–05 Season Not Played" engraved on the Cup.
According to the
International Ice Hockey Federation
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries.
The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...
, 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
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...
. 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.
Entry draft
The
2004 NHL entry draft, the last NHL event to take place before the lockout, was held on June 26 and 27, 2004 at the
RBC Center in
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...
.
Alexander Ovechkin
Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin (, ; born 17September 1985) is a Russian professional ice hockey Winger (ice hockey), left winger and Captain (ice hockey), captain of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "the ...
was selected first overall by the
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The Capitals compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NH ...
.
Lockout
On September 16, 2004, the NHL initiated a
lockout of the
National Hockey League Players' Association
The National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA, ) is the trade union, labour union for the group of professional List of NHL players, hockey players who are under Standard Player Contracts to the 32 member clubs in the National Hockey ...
(NHLPA) after the existing
NHL collective bargaining agreement
The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the basic contract between the National Hockey League (NHL) (32 team owners and NHL commissioner) and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), designed to be arrived at through the typical labour–ma ...
(CBA) expired one day earlier. The action marked the third
labour dispute
A labor dispute is a disagreement between an employer and employees regarding the terms of employment. This could include disputes regarding conditions of employment, fringe benefits, hours of work, tenure, and wages to be negotiated during co ...
between the league and the NHLPA in twelve years, following the
1992 strike and the
1994–95 lockout. The league attempted to convince the players to accept a
salary cap
In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Seve ...
to limit expenditure on player salaries, linking the cap to league revenues and thus guaranteeing the clubs what the league called ''cost certainty''. According to an NHL-commissioned report prepared by former
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...
chairman
Arthur Levitt
Arthur Levitt Jr. (born February 3, 1931) is the former chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He served from 1993 to 2001 as the twenty-fifth and longest-serving chairman of the commission. Widely hailed as a ...
, 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 the
2002–03 season. On July 20, 2004, the league presented the NHLPA with six concepts to achieve cost certainty. These concepts were believed to have included a ''hard'', or inflexible, salary cap similar to the one used in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
, a ''soft'' salary cap with some capped exceptions similar to the one used in the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
, and a centralized salary negotiation system similar to that used in the
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...
and
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
.
The NHLPA, under executive director
Bob 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
A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...
" 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 2004 ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' report that estimated the NHL's losses were less than half the amounts claimed by the league. 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 the
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The Capitals compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NH ...
. Some small-market teams, such as the
Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. The Penguins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), E ...
and the remaining small-market Canadian teams, were actually hoping ''for'' a lockout, since those teams would make more money by losing a season.
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. With no resolution by the 11:00 deadline, NHL commission
Gary Bettman
Gary Bruce Bettman (born June 2, 1952) is an American sports executive who serves as the NHL commissioner, commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL), a post he has held since February 1, 1993. Previously, Bettman was a senior vice preside ...
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 the
Sutter 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 also
guaranteed. 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.
Canceled All-Star Game
The 2005
All-Star Game
An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...
was originally scheduled to take place on February 13 at
Philips Arena
State Farm Arena is a Multi-purpose stadium, multi-purpose arena located in Atlanta, Georgia. The arena serves as the home venue for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It also served as home to the Atlanta Thrasher ...
in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, the home arena of the
Atlanta Thrashers
The Atlanta Thrashers were a professional ice hockey team based in Atlanta. Atlanta was granted a franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL) on June 25, 1997, and became the League's 28th franchise when it began play in the 1999–2000 NHL sea ...
. With negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA stalled, the league announced the game's cancellation on November 3. Atlanta would later host the
2008 All-Star Game.
Stanley Cup controversy
As a result of the lockout, no Stanley Cup champion was crowned for the first time since the
Spanish flu pandemic in
1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...
. 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.
Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Louise Clarkson ( zh, c=伍冰枝; ; born February 10, 1939) is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as the 26th governor general of Canada from 1999 to 2005.
Clarkson arrived in Canada with her family in 1941, as a refuge ...
, 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 the
Clarkson Cup was created instead. 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.
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 the
2005–06 season, and the Stanley Cup went unclaimed for the 2004–05 season.
Broadcasting rights
Before the lockout, the NHL had reached two separate deals with
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
(who would replace
ABC as the NHL's American national broadcast television partner) and
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
. ESPN offered to televise 40 games (only fifteen of which would be during the regular season), all on
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially ...
, 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 a
revenue sharing
Revenue sharing is the distribution of revenue, the total amount of income generated by the sales, sale of goods and services among the stakeholder (corporate), stakeholders or Benefactor (law), contributors. It should not be confused with profit ...
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 replaced ''
Hockey Night in Canada
''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...
'' with a block of Saturday night movies branded as ''Movie Night in Canada'', hosted by
Ron MacLean from various junior hockey venues.
TSN had other sports programming to fill their time slots.
See also
*
2004–05 NHL lockout
The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a labor lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, which would have been its 88th season of play.
The main dispute was the league's desire to implement a salary cap to ...
*
NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement
The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the basic contract between the National Hockey League (NHL) (32 team owners and NHL commissioner) and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), designed to be arrived at through the typical labour–ma ...
*
2004–05 NHL transactions
*
1994 World Series
*
2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament
*
2004 World Cup of Hockey
*
2005 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships
The 2005 Men's Ice Hockey Championships were held March 7 – May 15, 2005, in 7 cities in 6 countries: Vienna and Innsbruck, Austria (Championship); Debrecen, Hungary (Division I - Group A); Eindhoven, the Netherlands (Division I - Group B); Zagr ...
*
2004 in sports
*
2005 in sports
*
2012–13 NHL season
The 2012–13 NHL season was the 96th season of operation (95th season of play) of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season began on January 19, 2013, and ended on April 28, 2013, with the playoffs to follow until June. The Chicago B ...
*
1904 World Series
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2004-05 NHL season
1
1
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...