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Anze Kopitar #11
Age: 26
Contract Status: $6.8MM through 2015-16
Stats
Other stats
Corsi for: 61
Goals for %: 69.1
Shooting %: 14.1
TOI: 20:53
Postseason TOI: 21:13
Even strength point percentage: 67.1
Faceoffs: 53.3% (25th overall regular season)
His Season
A+
*end of review*
No, but seriously. That's really all that needs to be said.
Kopitar was an A+, there is no mystery to it. He was one of the top centers in the league this year. Easily in the top-10, definitely in the top-5, arguably in the top-3.
His season was masterful in so many ways that it's really difficult to find fault in anything that the young Slovenian did. He won a second cup, led the Kings in scoring in both regular and post-season, had a wonderful Olympics representing Slovenia, was runner-up for the Selke, and easily could have won a Conn Smythe as well. Pretty hard to have a better year than the year Kopitar just had.
While East Coast media and fantasy stat watchers might look at the simple things like 29 goals and 70 points and say "Yea he's good but not top echelon", they miss all the intricacies to Kopitar's game. He is as solid as they come in the defensive aspect of the game, he is a masterful distributor of the puck, and he can completely control shifts, and even games, with his size and skill.
We finally got to see what Kopitar was truly capable of when he was paired up with a true goal scorer in Marian Gaborik. After the Olympics, Kopitar had 23 points in the final 23 games of the season. He continued that pace into the postseason where he had 26 points in 26 games. In fact, Kopitar was only held of the scoresheet three times prior to the finals where he had just two points in the five game series against the Rangers. In that postseason we also saw one of the best center matchups in the history of the game with Jonathan Toews going toe to toe with Kopitar. It was one of the many things that made that series one for the ages.
In the past Kopitar had been criticized for remaining off the scoresheet for long stretches of games. This year, however, was different. The longest stretch Kopitar had this season where he was held without a point was three games. From December 15th to the 19th the Kings played Chicago, San Jose and Edmonton. Kopitar was point-less in those games, and that was his longest points drought all year. There were also only four other occasions on the year where he failed to get on the score sheet in back to back games. He still does go through some stretches of goal scoring droughts, like his 10-game drought in the dreaded month of January. However, by this time Kings fans should know that Kopitar isn't a 50 goal scorer. He's more like a 30-50/60 players who does all the little things you look for in a player.
He kills penalties, he plays the powerplay, he plays top line minutes, he dictates games, he wins big draws. He simply does. It. All.
It's hard to not recognize Kopitar as one of the elite centers of the league. It was difficult before, but this year was an absolute kick in the teeth to anyone that was still a naysayer.
Moving Forward
Well, it's definitely going to be tough to top last year, but Kopitar does have one thing going for him moving forward: Marian Gaborik. It's going to be very interesting to see what Kopitar does with a full year of Marian Gaborik at his side. The two showed a tremendous amount of chemistry together and already look like one of the more dangerous tandems in the Western Conference. If Gaborik can stay healthy perhaps we are looking at the first time in Kopitar's career that he pushes up closer to the 90 and 100 point mark. It's not completely out of the question if you look at the way he scored in the post-season and down the stretch. He was right at a point per game almost the whole way. He will also be chasing another shot at a Selke trophy, which I'm sure he wants in his display case at home. Last year, as much as Kopitar was fantastic, he lost out to Patrice Bergeron, who was completely deserving of the prestigious award. There's plenty of motivation to improve upon from a personal standpoint for Kopitar, but one of the great things about him is that he is a team oriented player and tends to put that before anything else.
There is an elephant in the room though. Kopitar is a unrestricted free agent coming up after 2015-16. While that seems like a far way away, there is no doubt already some number crunching going on in Dean Lombardi's head. Kopitar is making 6.8 a season, which is an absolute steal for a player of his caliber. Who knows what kind of money Kopitar will fetch in a few seasons, but initial talks of an extension may already be in the plans for sometime next season. With Jonathan Toews recently signing his $$10.5MM a year extension, it has to be somewhere in the range of 9 mil in my opinion. It is still a ways away, but it's something to think about.
I think the only question moving forward for the 26-year old Kopitar is how much better can he get? Has he hit his ceiling? Is there more to come? He definitely has the right surrounding and team around him to really hit a stride here in his late 20's and take yet another step. It's simply a question of how high can he go moving forward. Will he push the 90-100 point envelope? Will he win a Selke? A Lady Byng? A Hart even? Who knows.
I'm really going to make this poll easy for everyone.
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