Kings’ Anze Kopitar announces plans to retire after 2025-2026 season

Los Angeles Kings veteran center Anze Kopitar announced at a press conference held by the team on Thursday that he plans to retire following the 2025-2026 NHL season.

Kopitar, the club’s current captain, is one of the most legendary players in the franchise’s storied history.

The franchise chose him with the No. 11 overall pick in the first round of the 2005 NHL draft, and the Slovenian center quickly became a star in the league.

In his rookie year in 2006-2007, he put up 61 points in 72 games played while finishing fourth place in Calder Trophy voting as the league’s top rookie.

He is a three-time recipient of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy as the player who meets the highest standards of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct. He is a two-time winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league’s top two-way forward, and in 2021-2022, he received the Mark Messier Leadership Award.

Kopitar was one of the driving forces behind the team’s Stanley Cup championship runs in 2012 and 2014, serving as the first-line center on both rosters and producing exactly a point per game on both runs.

“I want to get this out of the way now to where I’m not a distraction for the team,” Kopitar said. “For example, if we’re in a fight coming down the stretch the last thing I want to do is take attention away from the team and put it on myself… I am looking extremely forward to this next season. I still have a lot of motivation… to compete at the very highest level.”

Kopitar turned 38 in August, and he has maintained his lofty standards of play into his late 30s. He’s coming off a season that saw him score 21 goals and dish out 46 assists for 67 points en route to an eighth-place finish in Selke voting, and he eclipsed the 70-point mark in each of the prior two seasons.

Los Angeles will kick off its regular season schedule at home against the Colorado Avalanche on October 7 to begin what will surely be a thorough celebration of Kopitar’s career.