On August 23, 2005, shortly after the end of the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Marian Hossa, whose 45 goals for the Senators in 2002-03 were a team record at the time, and had ranked fifth in the league in 2003-04 with 36, was traded with defenceman Greg de Vries to the Atlanta Thrashers for former second overall draft pick Dany Heatley, who had requested a trade out of Atlanta to shake his personal demons associated with Atlanta after being involved in a car crash on September 26, 2003 that killed Thrash centreman Dan Snyder, who was driving with Heatley at the time. Heatley has since regained the All-Star form he displayed in his rookie year on a line with fellow Rookie of the Year Alfredsson and young centre Jason Spezza, who led the American Hockey League in scoring during the 2004-05 NHL lockout.On October 5, 2005, Alfredsson and Heatley became the first players to score the winning goals for a shootout in National Hockey League History; they both scored against Toronto's Belfour. Their sticks were subsequently sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame.Heatley also set a team record with the longest consecutive point-scoring streak at 22 games. On February 2, 2006, the team set its own record scoring three short-handed goals in one game in a 7-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Antoine Vermette and Mike Fisher both scored short-handed within the same penalty in the second period and captain Alfredsson scored the third short-handed goal in the third period.Dany Heatley became the first Ottawa Senator in franchise history to reach 100 points on April 13, 2006, recording two assists during a 5-4 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers and five days later became the first to reach the 50-goal mark and the fifth player to do so in the league in the 2005-06 season. He finished with exactly 50 goals, fourth in the league. His 103 points also recorded fourth in the NHL.On October 15, 2005, Dominik Hasek recorded his 300th career win in a 5-1 win, stopping 34 of 35 shots.On April 15, 2006, scoring an assist against the Maple Leafs, Daniel Alfredsson became the second player in franchise history to reach 100 points. Heatley and Alfredsson now each hold the team record for most points in a season with 103. Jason Spezza also set a club record with 71 assists despite missing 14 games due to an injury, which was also partly the reason that cost him the NHL scoring title. His 71 assists were second, but he was behind with a considerable 25-assist margin — Art Ross Trophy-winner Joe Thornton led with 96 in the assist column.Meanwhile, defenceman Wade Redden became the first Senator to win the NHL Plus/Minus Award, tied with New York Ranger Michal Rozsival, with a +35 despite missing 17 games due to a sprained ankle and personal reasons. Andrej Meszaros narrowly missed on being the first rookie to win the plus/minus title with a +34 rating. At one point he led the NHL with +39.On April 29, 2006, the Senators defeated Tampa Bay in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, four games to one. Ray Emery became the first rookie netminder since Philadelphia's Brian Boucher in 2000 to win a playoff series. The Senators were defeated by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round on May 13, 2006, losing the series four games to one. This loss was particularly devastating since the Senators were widely tipped to win the Stanley Cup and were the highest-seeded team left in the playoffs after the elimination of the Detroit Red Wings by the Edmonton Oilers. Despite the high expectations, however, the Sens dropped the first three games of the series including two at home; ultimately losing on home ice, in overtime, on a short-handed goal scored by Buffalo's Jason Pominville in Game 5 of the series.Respected hockey broadcaster Bob McKenzie described the Senators' 2005-06 postseason as "an epic failure".After their latest playoff failure, Eugene Melnyk (the team's owner) comforted fans in an open letter, by saying that their team would not only win the Stanley Cup in the future, but, once they had it, they would, he boasted, "hoard" it year after year.In July 2006, the Senators lost four players to free agency; defencemen Zdeno Chara (who signed a 5-year deal with the Boston Bruins), Brian Pothier (who signed with the Washington Capitals), goalie Dominik Hasek, (who's signed a 1-year deal, 750,000+bonuses if Hasek goes back to the Cup Final with the Detroit Red Wings), and forward Vaclav Varada who has signed with HC Davos of the Swiss Elite League). They replaced Hasek with former Carolina Hurricanes starter Martin Gerber and also signed defenceman Joe Corvo, late of the Los Angeles Kings. A short time later, they traded star forward Martin Havlat and centre Bryan Smolinski to the Chicago Blackhawks for Tom Preissing, Josh Hennessy, Michal Barinka and a second-round draft pick in 2008. On September 12, 2006, the club announced that they signed Russian centre Alexei Kaigorodov to a two-year entry level contract. They signed blueliner Jamie Allison, re-signed Antoine Vermette, Chris Neil and Peter Schaefer to avoid arbitration proceedings. They signed Chris Kelly and Spezza for 2 years each, as well as Christoph Schubert.