2004–05 NHL lockout

2004–05 NHL lockout
2004–05 NHL lockout
Date	September 16, 2004 – July 22, 2005 ; (10 months and 6 days)
Location	United States ; Canada
Caused by	Expiration of the 1995 NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement; Failure to reach a new collective bargaining agreement ahead of the 2004–05 season; 76% of the NHL clubs' revenues were spent on team salaries prior to the end of the 2003–04 season due to the lack of a salary cap;
Goals	Salary cap; Revenue sharing; Luxury taxes;
Resulted in	2004–05 NHL season cancelled on February 16, 2005; NHL and NHLPA reach an agreement to end the lockout on July 13; New eight-year collective bargaining agreement signed on July 22; NHL becomes last of the four major professional sports leagues to adopt a salary cap or luxury tax; Team salary revenues reduced from 76% to 54%; Rule changes instituted for regular season games starting in the 2005–06 season, including the addition of a shootout; Bob Goodenow resigns as executive director;
Parties
National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA)	National Hockey League (NHL)
Lead figures
	Bob Goodenow (executive director) Gary Bettman (commissioner) ; Bill Daly (lead negotiator)

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 limit expenditure on player salaries, which was opposed by the NHL Players Association (NHLPA), the players' labor union, who proposed an alternative system of revenue sharing.

Attempts at collective bargaining before the season began were unsuccessful. The lockout was initiated on September 16, 2004, one day after the expiration of the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which itself had been the result of the 1994–95 lockout. During the lockout, further attempts to negotiate a new CBA floundered, with neither side willing to back down, and this led to the entire season being canceled on February 16, 2005. The NHL and NHLPA negotiating teams finally reached an agreement on July 13, 2005, with the lockout officially ending nine days later on July 22, after ratification by the NHL team owners and NHLPA members. The resulting CBA included both a salary cap and revenue sharing.

The lockout had lasted 10 months and 6 days, covering 1,230 unplayed games. As a result, the Stanley Cup was not awarded for the first time since 1919. Among the major professional sports leagues in North America, this was the first (and so far only) time a whole season was canceled because of a labor dispute, and the second time a postseason was canceled (after the 1994–95 MLB strike). Large numbers of NHL players elected to play in European leagues during the lockout.

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