# 2004–05 Buffalo Sabres season

The 2004–05 Buffalo Sabres season was to be the 35th for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on May 22, 1970. The season was cancelled as the 2004–05 NHL lockout could not be resolved in time to save the season.

## Schedule

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

## Transactions

The Sabres 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.

### Trades

The Sabres did not make any trades.

### Players acquired

| Date | Player | Former team | Term | Via | Ref |
| September 10, 2004 (2004-09-10) | Todd Rohloff | Washington Capitals | 1-year | Free agency | |
| September 10, 2004 (2004-09-10) | Brandon Smith | New York Islanders | 1-year | Free agency | |

### Players lost

| Date | Player | New team | Via |
| July 1, 2004 (2004-07-01) | Karel Mosovsky | | Contract expiration (UFA) |
| July 1, 2004 (2004-07-01) | James Patrick | | Contract expiration (III) |
| August 24, 2004 (2004-08-24) | Rick Mrozik | Edmonton Road Runners (AHL) | Free agency (VI) |
| September 4, 2004 (2004-09-04) | Scott Ricci | Nottingham Panthers (EIHL) | Free agency (UFA) |
| September 10, 2004 (2004-09-10) | David Cullen | Rochester Americans (AHL) | Free agency (VI) |
| October 18, 2004 (2004-10-18) | Brian Chapman | Springfield Falcons (AHL) | Free agency (VI) |
| December 6, 2004 (2004-12-06) | Alexei Zhitnik | Ak Bars Kazan (RSL) | Free agency (III) |

### Signings

| Date | Player | Term | Contract type |
| June 30, 2004 (2004-06-30) | Ales Kotalik | 1-year | Option exercised |
| July 23, 2004 (2004-07-23) | Mike Grier | 1-year | Re-signing |
| July 28, 2004 (2004-07-28) | Brian Campbell | 1-year | Re-signing |
| July 28, 2004 (2004-07-28) | Jeff Jillson | 1-year | Re-signing |
| July 28, 2004 (2004-07-28) | Taylor Pyatt | 1-year | Re-signing |
| July 28, 2004 (2004-07-28) | Henrik Tallinder | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 2, 2004 (2004-08-02) | Maxim Afinogenov | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 2, 2004 (2004-08-02) | Tim Connolly | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 2, 2004 (2004-08-02) | Rory Fitzpatrick | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 2, 2004 (2004-08-02) | Mika Noronen | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 6, 2004 (2004-08-06) | Jochen Hecht | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 9, 2004 (2004-08-09) | Martin Biron | 1-year | Arbitration settlement |
| August 9, 2004 (2004-08-09) | Brad Brown | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 9, 2004 (2004-08-09) | Jean-Pierre Dumont | 1-year | Re-signing |
| August 13, 2004 (2004-08-13) | Daniel Briere | 1-year | Arbitration settlement |
| September 1, 2004 (2004-09-01) | Dmitri Kalinin | 1-year | Re-signing |
| September 3, 2004 (2004-09-03) | Thomas Vanek | 3-year | Entry-level |
| September 10, 2004 (2004-09-10) | Jason Botterill | 1-year | Re-signing |
| September 14, 2004 (2004-09-14) | Andrew Peters | | Re-signing |
| September 15, 2004 (2004-09-15) | Milan Bartovic | 1-year | Re-signing |
| September 15, 2004 (2004-09-15) | Doug Janik | 1-year | Re-signing |
| September 15, 2004 (2004-09-15) | Ryan Miller | 1-year | Re-signing |
| September 15, 2004 (2004-09-15) | Norm Milley | 1-year | Re-signing |

## Draft picks

Buffalo's picks at the 2004 NHL entry draft, which was held at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina on June 26–27, 2004.
| Round | Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | College/Junior Team |
| 1 | 13 | Drew Stafford | RW | United States | University of North Dakota (WCHA) |
| 2 | 43 | Michael Funk | D | Canada | Portland Winter Hawks (WHL) |
| 3 | 71 | Andrej Sekera | D | Slovakia | HC Dukla Trenčín (Slovak) |
| 5 | 145 | Michal Valent | G | Slovakia | MHC Martin (Slovak) |
| 6 | 176 | Patrick Kaleta | RW | United States | Peterborough Petes (OHL) |
| 7 | 207 | Mark Mancari | RW | Canada | Ottawa 67's (OHL) |
| 8 | 241 | Mike Card | D | Canada | Kelowna Rockets (WHL) |
| 9 | 273 | Dylan Hunter | LW | Canada | London Knights (OHL) |

## Farm teams

The Sabres AHL affiliate Rochester Americans played with a roster that included many future Sabres. Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy, Ryan Miller and Jason Pominville among others, played the season in Rochester. HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) hosted a pair of Rochester games experimenting with blue ice to see if blue would make the television appearance better than white. The blue ice experiment was ultimately not accepted in post-lockout rule changes.