Last week, the hockey world lost a living legend in the form of a proper home game retirement. The Los Angeles Kings were swept by the President Trophy winning Colorado Avalanche in four games of the best of seven series in the 2026 postseason. With that result, the final game of the greatest Slovenian born skater concluded at Cyrpto.com Arena.
Anze Kopitar of Jesenice, Slovenia is a first round draft selection, 11th overall in 2005, that only played for the Los Angeles Kings from 2006-2026.
Kopitar skated in 1521 regular season games, collecting 452 goals, 864 assists, 1316 points. That is an average of 0.87 points per games and 0.30 goals per game. The forward also never had more than 34 penalty minutes in a single regular season, with 32 being his highest amount in his third season.
The two-time Stanley Cup trophy winner also won three Lady Byng Memorial trophies (four time finalist as of noon on April 30, 2026), two Frank J. Selke trophies, and the Mark Messier NHL Leadership award once. He also earned $144.03M in his career over four contacts courtesy of agent Pat Brisson.
The captain of the Los Angeles Kings truly defined his legacy in the game of hockey as the perfect two way center iceman. He shut down the best of the best in his career, whether it was the Sedin twins, Zach Parise, Rick Nash, Joe Thornton, and Patrick Marleau. The best of the west in the 2010s had the playoff contenders in California, cup battles with the Chicago Blackhawks, and a rebuild closed by one last chance for glory.
His tenure had him combine with some of my favorites growing up including Simon Gagne, Justin Williams, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter during Philadelphia and Columbus, Marian Gaborik, Vincent Lecavalier, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Artemi Panarin. There were also the original guys he won the cup with including Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty, and Jonathan Quick.
Kopitar has helped mentor the active youth in the roster including Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere, and Alex Turcotte. He is forced connected to Los Angeles and brought the cup to the city that needed the championship, something even the greatest could not even do.
Los Angeles was my western conference bandwagon team in the 2010s with the amount of players from my teams in the east that were traded there and won cups, but Kopitar was at the head of it all. Those late night battles with the Blues, Blackhawks, and Predators in the Midwest, the Canucks, Ducks, and Sharks out west, and the Devils and Rangers in the east to hoist the Stanley Cup the first and second time in franchise history. A true cornerstone, franchise player, that only wore one pro-American sweater in California.
Congratulations on the success and retirement future hockey hall of famer, #11, Anze Kopitar!