2004–05 New York Rangers season

The 2004–05 New York Rangers season was the franchise's 79th season; however, its games were cancelled as the 2004–05 NHL lockout could not be resolved in time.

2004–05 New York Rangers
Division	Atlantic
Conference	Eastern
2004–05 record	Did not play
Team information
General manager	Glen Sather
Coach	Tom Renney
Captain	Vacant
Arena	Madison Square Garden
Minor league affiliate(s)	Hartford Wolf Pack Charlotte Checkers
← 2003–04 2005–06 →

Off-season

On July 6, 2004, it was announced that Tom Renney would remain the head coach of the Rangers.^[1]

Schedule

The Rangers preseason and regular season schedules were announced on July 13 and July 14, 2004, respectively.^[2][3]

2004–05 schedule[4]
Preseason Game Date Opponent 1 September 23 New York Islanders 2 September 26 @ New York Islanders 3 September 28 @ New Jersey Devils 4 September 30 New Jersey Devils 5 October 2 @ Boston Bruins 6 October 5 Boston Bruins 7 October 6 @ Columbus Blue Jackets 8 October 8 @ Minnesota Wild 9 October 10 @ Detroit Red Wings
Regular season Game Date Opponent 1 October 15 Pittsburgh Penguins 2 October 16 @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3 October 20 Philadelphia Flyers 4 October 23 Atlanta Thrashers 5 October 25 San Jose Sharks 6 October 29 @ Pittsburgh Penguins 7 October 30 @ Toronto Maple Leafs 8 November 1 Los Angeles Kings 9 November 3 Boston Bruins 10 November 5 Florida Panthers 11 November 6 @ Ottawa Senators 12 November 8 Nashville Predators 13 November 11 Toronto Maple Leafs 14 November 13 Buffalo Sabres 15 November 15 @ New York Islanders 16 November 17 @ Atlanta Thrashers 17 November 19 @ Buffalo Sabres 18 November 20 @ Montreal Canadiens 19 November 22 New York Islanders 20 November 24 @ Carolina Hurricanes 21 November 26 @ Washington Capitals 22 November 28 Pittsburgh Penguins 23 December 1 @ New Jersey Devils 24 December 2 @ Philadelphia Flyers 25 December 4 New Jersey Devils 26 December 6 Ottawa Senators 27 December 9 Washington Capitals 28 December 11 @ New Jersey Devils 29 December 12 Boston Bruins 30 December 14 @ Washington Capitals 31 December 17 New York Islanders 32 December 18 @ Philadelphia Flyers 33 December 21 @ Atlanta Thrashers 34 December 23 Florida Panthers 35 December 26 @ Buffalo Sabres 36 December 31 @ Florida Panthers 37 January 1 @ Tampa Bay Lightning 38 January 3 Anaheim Mighty Ducks 39 January 6 Columbus Blue Jackets 40 January 8 @ Boston Bruins 41 January 10 Montreal Canadiens 42 January 13 Phoenix Coyotes 43 January 15 Pittsburgh Penguins 44 January 18 @ Ottawa Senators 45 January 20 New Jersey Devils 46 January 22 Philadelphia Flyers 47 January 24 St. Louis Blues 48 January 25 @ New York Islanders 49 January 27 Atlanta Thrashers 50 January 29 @ Montreal Canadiens 51 February 2 @ Vancouver Canucks 52 February 3 @ Calgary Flames 53 February 5 @ Edmonton Oilers 54 February 8 Toronto Maple Leafs 55 February 10 @ New Jersey Devils 56 February 16 @ Minnesota Wild 57 February 17 @ Columbus Blue Jackets 58 February 19 Philadelphia Flyers 59 February 21 Chicago Blackhawks 60 February 23 Tampa Bay Lightning 61 February 26 @ Pittsburgh Penguins 62 February 27 Colorado Avalanche 63 March 2 Carolina Hurricanes 64 March 5 @ New York Islanders 65 March 7 Washington Capitals 66 March 9 @ Dallas Stars 67 March 11 @ Anaheim Mighty Ducks 68 March 13 @ San Jose Sharks 69 March 16 New Jersey Devils 70 March 18 Buffalo Sabres 71 March 19 @ Toronto Maple Leafs 72 March 22 Carolina Hurricanes 73 March 25 New York Islanders 74 March 26 @ Detroit Red Wings 75 March 28 Montreal Canadiens 76 March 30 @ Florida Panthers 77 March 31 @ Tampa Bay Lightning 78 April 2 @ Carolina Hurricanes 79 April 4 Tampa Bay Lightning 80 April 6 Ottawa Senators 81 April 7 @ Philadelphia Flyers 82 April 9 @ Boston Bruins

Transactions

The Rangers were involved in the following transactions from June 8, 2004, the day after the deciding game of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, through February 16, 2005, the day the 2004–05 season was officially cancelled.^[5]

Trades

Date	Details		Ref
June 26, 2004 (2004-06-26)	To New York Rangers 1st-round pick in 2004 8th-round pick in 2004	To Calgary Flames 1st-round pick in 2004 2nd-round pick in 2004	[6]
	To New York Rangers 2nd-round pick in 2004 3rd-round pick in 2004	To Florida Panthers 2nd-round pick in 2004	[5]
	To New York Rangers 2nd-round pick in 2004 3rd-round pick in 2004	To Phoenix Coyotes 2nd-round pick in 2004	[5]

Players acquired

Date	Player	Former team	Term	Via	Ref
July 20, 2004 (2004-07-20)	Trevor Gillies	Springfield Falcons (AHL)		Free agency	[7]
	Jason Strudwick	Chicago Blackhawks		Free agency	[8]
July 22, 2004 (2004-07-22)	Jeff MacMillan	Dallas Stars		Free agency	[9]
August 10, 2004 (2004-08-10)	Michael Nylander	Boston Bruins	3-year	Free agency	[10]
August 25, 2004 (2004-08-25)	Jason Marshall	San Jose Sharks		Free agency	[11]
August 26, 2004 (2004-08-26)	Kevin Weekes	Carolina Hurricanes		Free agency	[12]

Players lost

Date	Player	New team	Via[a]	Ref
July 1, 2004 (2004-07-01)	Bobby Andrews[b]		Contract expiration (VI)	[13]
	Pavel Bure[c]		Contract expiration (III)	[13]
	Eric Lindros[d]		Contract expiration (III)	[13]
	Sandy McCarthy[e]		Contract expiration (III)	[13]
	Mark Messier[f]		Contract expiration (III)	[13]
	Boris Mironov[g]		Contract expiration (III)	[13]
July 2, 2004 (2004-07-02)	Jamie McLennan	Florida Panthers	Free agency (III)	[20]
July 14, 2004 (2004-07-14)	Cory Larose	Atlanta Thrashers	Free agency (VI)	[21]
July 28, 2004 (2004-07-28)	Jason MacDonald	Toronto Maple Leafs	Free agency	[22]
August 2, 2004 (2004-08-02)	Mike Green	Nurnberg Ice Tigers (DEL)	Free agency (II)[h]	[24]
	Jeff Paul	Washington Capitals	Free agency (VI)	[25]
August 6, 2004 (2004-08-06)	Jan Hlavac	HC Sparta Praha (ELH)	Free agency (UFA)	[26]
August 9, 2004 (2004-08-09)	Jamie Pushor	Syracuse Crunch (AHL)	Free agency (III)	[27]
August 11, 2004 (2004-08-11)	Matt Kinch	EC Red Bull Salzburg (EBEL)	Free agency (II)[i]	[29]
August 19, 2004 (2004-08-19)	Jeff Heerema	Vancouver Canucks	Free agency (UFA)	[30]
August 24, 2004 (2004-08-24)	Benoit Dusablon	Montreal Canadiens	Free agency (UFA)	[31]
September 27, 2004 (2004-09-27)	Josh Green	Manitoba Moose (AHL)	Free agency (UFA)	[32]
N/A	John Jakopin	HDD Olimpija Ljubljana (SIHL)	Free agency (UFA)	[33]
November 1, 2004 (2004-11-01)	Dan LaCouture	Providence Bruins (AHL)	Free agency (UFA)	[34]
January 7, 2005 (2005-01-07)	Chris McAllister	Newcastle Vipers (BNL)	Free agency (UFA)	[35]
March 17, 2005 (2005-03-17)	Joel Bouchard	Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL)	Free agency (UFA)	[36]

Signings

Date	Player	Term	Contract type	Ref
July 22, 2004 (2004-07-22)	Lucas Lawson		Re-signing	[37]
	Karel Rachunek	1-year	Re-signing	[38][39]
July 27, 2004 (2004-07-27)	Dale Purinton		Re-signing	[40]
July 29, 2004 (2004-07-29)	Dan Blackburn		Re-signing	[41]
	David Liffiton		Entry-level	[42]
August 3, 2004 (2004-08-03)	Dwight Helminen		Entry-level	[43]
August 4, 2004 (2004-08-04)	Jake Taylor		Entry-level	[44]
August 10, 2004 (2004-08-10)	Jamie Lundmark	1-year	Re-signing	[45]
August 11, 2004 (2004-08-11)	Martin Grenier		Re-signing	[46]
	Layne Ulmer		Re-signing	[47]
August 18, 2004 (2004-08-18)	Chad Wiseman		Re-signing	[48]
September 1, 2004 (2004-09-01)	Nigel Dawes		Entry-level	[49]
September 14, 2004 (2004-09-14)	Lee Falardeau		Entry-level	[50]
September 15, 2004 (2004-09-15)	Ivan Baranka		Entry-level	[51]

Draft picks

New York's picks at the 2004 NHL entry draft in Raleigh, North Carolina at the RBC Center.^[52]

Round	#	Player	Position	Nationality	College/Junior/Club team (League)
1	6	Al Montoya	G	United States	University of Michigan (CCHA)
1	19	Lauri Korpikoski	LW	Finland	TPS Jr. (Finland Jr.)
2	36	Darin Olver	C	Canada	Northern Michigan University (CCHA)
2	48	Dane Byers	LW	Canada	Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)
2	51	Bruce Graham	C	Canada	Moncton Wildcats (QMJHL)
2	60	Brandon Dubinsky	C	United States	Portland Winter Hawks (WHL)
3	73	Zdenek Bahensky	RW	Czech Republic	HC Chemopetrol Jr. (Czech Republic)
3	80	Billy Ryan	C	United States	Cushing Academy (USHS)
4	127	Ryan Callahan	RW	United States	Guelph Storm (OHL)
5	135	Roman Psurny	LW	Czech Republic	Zlín Jr. (Czech Jr.)
6	169	Jordan Foote	LW	Canada	Nanaimo Clippers (BCHL)
8	247	Jonathan Paiement	D	Canada	Lewiston Maineiacs (QMJHL)
9	266	Jakub Petruzalek	RW	Czech Republic	HC Chemopetrol Jr. (Czech Republic)

Notes

1. In parentheses is the player's free agency group on July 1 if applicable.^[13]
2. Andrews retired.^[14]
3. Bure last played during the 2002–03 season and announced his retirement on November 1, 2005.^[15]
4. Lindros was inactive during the 2004–05 season.^[16]
5. McCarthy retired.^[17]
6. Messier was inactive during the 2004–05 season and announced his retirement on September 12, 2005.^[18]
7. Mironov was inactive during the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons.^[19]
8. The Rangers retained Green’s NHL rights until trading them to the Dallas Stars on June 14, 2006.^[23]
9. New York retained Kinch's NHL rights through the 2004–05 season.^[28]