Clayton Kershaw shouldn’t be the one Los Angeles sports activities icon announcing their retirement on Thursday. Anze Kopitar, the longtime captain of the Los Angeles Kings and a two-time Stanley Cup champion, additionally announced on Thursday that he’s retiring from the NHL following the 2025-26 season. Kopitar has performed his whole profession with the Kings after being a first-round decide by the workforce in 2005, serving to convey the Stanley Cup to Los Angeles for the primary time ever.
Anze Kopitar continues to be one of many NHL’s most underappreciated stars
Kopitar was by no means probably the most prolific scorer within the NHL throughout his profession, however few gamers within the league have been higher at each ends of the ice. Even into his late 30s, Kopitar has persistently been one of many NHL’s greatest two-way gamers and was persistently overshadowed not solely by the league’s elite point-producers, however even different comparable two-way facilities like Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews.
However whereas all three gamers — Kopitar, Bergeron and Toews — have been extraordinarily comparable, the opposite two appeared to get extra recognition as the higher gamers and slam-dunk Corridor of Famers.
Kopitar was not solely their equal throughout the board; he was in lots of seasons the superior participant. He was each bit the defensive drive that Bergeron and Toews have been, and a persistently higher offensive participant. Even with all of his particular person and workforce accomplishments he nonetheless by no means appeared to get the popularity he deserved leaguewide.
Anze Kopitar’s Corridor of Fame resume
Whenever you have a look at the general profession numbers, Kopitar does not have a number of the massive numbers that different Corridor of Famers do. Coming into his last season within the NHL, he has 440 objectives and 1,278 complete factors in 1,454 regular-season video games. Glorious numbers — however not precisely among the many all-time greats.
These numbers solely inform a portion of the story of his profession. Kopitar’s resume contains two Selke Trophies because the NHL’s greatest defensive ahead, three Woman Byng Awards for gentlemanly play and sportsmanship and two Stanley Cup rings. In each of these Stanley Cup-winning seasons, he was the very best participant on the Kings roster, main the playoffs in scoring every time.
The three-year stretch between 2012 and 2015 was Kopitar at his absolute peak degree of dominance. He was not solely the very best participant on a workforce that received two Stanley Cups and had one other Western Convention Closing look sandwiched within the center, he additionally helped drag an overmatched and undermanned Slovenia workforce to the quarterfinals of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He was the one NHL participant on that workforce in a match towards what have been principally NHL All-Star squads, and he had that workforce taking part in aggressive hockey and hanging with them.
