Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar will retire after this season, his twentieth within the NHL, he introduced Thursday.
Kopitar, who helped lead the Kings to Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014, turned 38 final month. The 2-way heart is getting into the ultimate season of a two-year extension he signed in July 2023 after taking part in his whole profession with Los Angeles.
One of the revered, defensive-minded forwards within the league, Kopitar has received two Selke Trophies (2016, ’18) and three Girl Byng Trophies for gentlemanly play (2016, ’23, ’25).
Based on these near the captain, Kopitar needed to make the announcement earlier than the season so he may totally deal with the 2025-26 Kings, a crew with Stanley Cup aspirations. The Kings haven’t received a playoff collection since profitable their final Stanley Cup in 2014, dropping to the Edmonton Oilers within the first spherical every of the previous 4 seasons.
The Kings, beneath new normal supervisor Ken Holland, made a number of additions this summer time to assist with that title push, together with signing veterans Corey Perry (who performed final season with the Oilers), Joel Armia, Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin.
Kopitar will retire as a franchise legend. He already sits atop the Kings’ document guide for video games performed (1,454) and assists (838), and he’s 29 factors from tying Marcel Dionne’s mark of 1,307 factors because the crew’s all-time main scorer. Kopitar additionally is 2 again from Jeff Carter’s document for many additional time objectives (11) in crew historical past.
Kopitar is coming off one other sound season, ending second amongst Kings forwards in factors (67) and ice time (18:57), trailing solely linemate Adrian Kempe. Kopitar additionally tied for the crew lead final season with seven game-winning objectives.
Kopitar is considered a nationwide hero in his native Slovenia. Because the No. 11 choose of the 2005 draft, he grew to become the primary Slovenian to play within the NHL when he debuted in 2006-07. Though Kopitar has appeared for the Slovenian nationwide crew on varied levels, together with the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Slovenia didn’t qualify for the 2026 Milan Olympics, the place NHL gamers are as soon as once more collaborating.
