Kings captain Anze Kopitar has a significant foot injury that could sideline him for the near future.
The Kings announced that Kopitar is “week to week” on Friday, a day after he missed the team’s 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh.
Kopitar was hit in the foot by a deflected puck during a shootout loss at Minnesota on Monday. After saying Kopitar’s availability would be a game-time decision for the game against Pittsburgh, the Kings acknowledged the injury could be more significant.
Kopitar is beginning his 20th and final season in an NHL career spent entirely with the Kings. The Slovenian center announced his impending retirement last month at the start of training camp.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion has twice won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward. He is the second-leading scorer in Kings history and a five-time All-Star.
The Kings are off to a rough start to the season, losing three straight to fall to 1-3-1. New general manager Ken Holland made only a few changes to the roster that matched the franchise records for points and victories last season.
Los Angeles hosts unbeaten Carolina on Saturday night.
For Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, Tuesday’s NHL season-opener was the beginning of the end while for Ken Holland, the team’s first-year general manager, it was the end of the beginning.
For both it was also a night to forget, with the Colorado Avalanche skating through, over and around the Kings in a dominant 4-1 victory built on second-period goals from Martin Necas, Sam Malinski, Artturi Lehkonen and a second Necas score midway through the third.
Kevin Fiala got the Kings only goal on the team’s third power play of the final period, though the score, coming with less than five minutes to play, was little more than a murmur of protest. Kopitar picked up his 839th career assist on the goal, padding his franchise record.
Kopitar, the Kings’ all-time leader in several other categories including games, announced last month that this season, his 20th in the NHL, would be his last yet. And while those numbers will eventually take him to the Hall of Fame, first there will be a farewell tour around the league, one that got off to an uneven start Tuesday with the sellout crowd at Crypto.com Arena saluting him with a standing ovation pregame. Kopitar wasn’t much of a factor after that, however, taking just one shot in 18 minutes.
Meanwhile for Holland, hired last May to get the Kings beyond the opening round of the playoffs for the first time since 2014, the game marked the end of his summer restructuring with his new team. And the first impression wasn’t a good one, with the Kings losing their opener for the third time in four seasons.
Anze Kopitar is introduced before Tuesday’s season opener for the Kings.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
Both teams played cautiously in a first period that ended with the Kings skating shorthanded after Colorado’s Josh Manson took down the Kings’ Warren Foegele with an elbow, a hit Jeff Malott acknowledged by chasing Manson down the ice and dropping the gloves. Both players drew five-minute fighting penalties but Malott was also given two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Kings killed the penalty, which spilled over into the second period, but seconds after both teams were back at full strength Necas gave the Avalanche the lead for good with a wrister from the right circle.
Malinski, a defenseman, doubled the advantage less than seven minutes later, blasting a shot from just inside the blue line through traffic and by goalie Darcy Kuemper. Lehkonen gave Colorado its third goal of the second period on a rebound with 5:18 left.
Necas then made it 4-0 on a power-play goal halfway through the final period. Fialla matched that with the Kings’ first goal of the year less than five minutes later.
The Kings, meanwhile, rarely challenged Colorado’s Scott Wedgewood, playing tentatively and creating little offense, putting just nine shots on goal through the first 36 minutes. After a big third period, they finished with 25.
As a result Holland’s first game with the Kings was an an uneven as his first summer with the team. Although he added forwards Corey Perry (who will miss the first month of the season with a knee injury) and Joel Armia, defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci and goalkeeper Anton Forsberg, and re-signed winger Andrei Kuzmenko to a club-friendly contract, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, Holland’s main offseason target, left for the New York Rangers.
Luc Robitaille knew his hockey playing career was over when it took him longer to get his battered body ready for a game than it did to play it.
“It became harder and harder physically,” said Robitaille, whose next stop was the hall of fame. “I think I knew at that point.”
And once his mind was made up, there was no turning back.
For Anze Kopitar, who is in the peak of good health, the decision was a little different. The Kings’ longtime center announced last month that, at 38, he will retire after this season and spend more time with his family. But, like Robitaille, there will be no turning back.
“I’m not going to change my mind,” he said.
In fact, he’s not going to change anything. Kopitar said he’s approaching this season, his 20th with the Kings, the same way he approached the first 19.
“The last few years, I told myself that I have to enjoy it because you don’t know when the ending is com[ing],” he said. “So I’ve been enjoying it. I’m obviously having a lot of fun, still playing the game. This year won’t be any different.
“The focus is still on this season.”
A season that kicks off Tuesday when the Kings host the Colorado Avalanche. But while Kopitar is starting the season the same way as always, he’s hoping for a different ending since the Kings’ last four years have ended with first-round playoff losses to the Edmonton Oilers.
Another Stanley Cup title would be a nice parting gift, especially since Kopitar, entering a team-record 10th season as captain, would be the first man to hoist the trophy, an honor that went to Dustin Brown when the Kings won in 2012 and 2014.
“I’d like to win every year. I’d like to win this year,” he said.
“My kids weren’t born when we won, so I’d like to win so they can experience that feeling too.”
Kings captain Anze Kopitar skates during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks in March.
(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
However Kopitar’s season finishes, his career will end with him joining Robitaille, now the Kings president, in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is the Kings’ all-time leader in games (1,454), assists (838) and winning goals (78) and ranks in the top three in goals, points, plus-minus and power-play scores.
And just nine players in NHL history have played more games with one team than Kopitar, who has spent his entire career with the Kings.
Unlike Robitaille, he’s hardly hobbling off into retirement. He led the Kings with 46 assists and was second with 67 points last season, playing in 81 of 82 games. He also won his third Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, which goes to the player exhibiting the best sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct in the NHL.
But his two children — daughter Neza, 10, is a talented figure skater and son Jakob, 9, plays hockey — deserve more of his time and attention, he said.
“I still love to be in hockey and I’m still productive,” Kopitar said. “But on the flip side, the kids need their dad to be more present and be a dad, not a hockey player. I can walk away on my own terms and not be forced to retire because of injuries and because the body’s not holding up.”
Anze Kopitar and his wife, Ines, attend a Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena in January 2024.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
That wasn’t Robitaille’s experience. A fractured ankle late in career and lower back pain so severe he could hardly get out of bed, led to his retirement in 2006, less than six months before Kopitar’s NHL debut.
“It kind of felt to me that I had squeezed everything out of the lemon. There was nothing left,” Robitaille said. “I was really at peace.”
As for what advice he’d give his captain, Robitaille said he’ll tell Kopitar to make time to stop and smell the roses on his last trip around the league.
“If you listen to 99% of the guys that retire in any sport, the one thing they miss is the [locker] room,” he said. “So when you know you’re near the end, you’ve got to make sure you pay attention to every one of those little moments that you’re going to miss for the next 50 years of your life.
“You’re playing a game. You’re 30 years old or 40 years old — 38 for Kopi — and he’s playing a game. It’s amazing. Most people don’t get to do that in their life, you know?”
Kopitar’s decision comes with the Kings at a crossroads. They tied team records for points (105) and wins (48) last season while going a franchise-best 31-6-4 at home in Jim Hiller’s first full season as coach. That earned the team second place in the Pacific Division, its best finish in a decade.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar, left, speaks to defenseman Drew Doughty during a game against the Winnipeg Jets in December 2023.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The postseason was déjà vu all over again, however, with the Oilers eliminating the Kings.
General manager Rob Blake resigned four days later and was replaced by Ken Holland, who won four Stanley Cups as GM of the Detroit Red Wings. The Kings’ core is also in transition because when Kopitar steps aside, only defenseman Drew Doughty will remain from their Stanley Cup-winning teams.
“Passing the torch, [we]’ve been trying to for the past few years, been trying to mentor some of the kids in this locker room,” Kopitar said. “Maybe that’s what it is.”
Holland had mixed results in his first summer with the Kings, adding forwards Corey Perry (who will miss the first month of the season because of a knee injury) and Joel Armia, defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci and goalkeeper Anton Forsberg, and re-signing winger Andrei Kuzmenko to a club-friendly contract.
Also back are leading scorers Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe, who had 35 goals each, wingers Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield and goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who had a career-best 2.02 goals-against average and finished third in Vezina Trophy voting.
But Holland lost veteran defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to the New York Rangers and failed to land Mitch Marner, the summer’s most-sought player, who wound up in Las Vegas.
And now he’s the team’s first general manager in two decades who has been forced to ponder a future without Anze Kopitar.
Anze Kopitar takes the ice before a game against the Winnipeg Jets in December 2023.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“We’re really going to enjoy having Kopi in the lineup this year. But next summer it’s going to be a big void,” Holland said on the Canucks Central podcast. “He’s big and strong. And it’s hard to find big, strong, talented centermen.
“He’s very intelligent. And I think the team follows his lead.”
As for Kopitar, he’s not thinking past the next nine months. He has the rest of his life to figure out what comes next.
“I haven’t really given too much thought of what’s going to happen [next], except for being home for my kids,” he said. “I’ll take my time and then see what, see what life throws at me.
“I’m going to miss the game of hockey. What I’m not gonna miss is working out, getting ready for the season, all the hours you’ve got to put in. But the game itself, of course, I’m going to miss it. It’s been here for the better part of 35 years. But listen, the summers are going to be more enjoyable.”
Anze Kopitar, widely considered the greatest player in Kings franchise history and poised to become the team’s all-time leading scorer, announced Thursday he will retire at the end of the 2025-26 season.
Entering his 20th season with the Kings and the final year of his contract, the decision was somewhat expected from the 38-year-old team captain. He told KCAL News last month he was thinking about retirement and that it could be his last NHL season.
Kings general manager Ken Holland told NHL Network Radio in July that Kopitar indicated he wasn’t seeking a contract extension this summer and was intending to take things a “year at a time.”
Kopitar is second all-time in franchise scoring, with 1,278 points in a franchise-leading 1,454 games played. He is 30 points away from breaking Marcel Dionne’s team record for most points (1,307). He ranks third all-time in franchise goals (440) behind Luc Robitaille (557) and Dionne (550) and leads in assists (838). He is a two-time Selke trophy winner (best defensive forward) and three-time Lady Byng trophy winner (gentlemanly play).
Drafted 11th overall by the Kings in 2005, Kopitar made an immediate impact during his 2006-07 rookie season, finishing with 20 goals and 61 points for a downtrodden team that was in the middle of a six-year playoff drought.
Kings center Anze Kopitar celebrates with the Stanley Cup after the Kings defeated the New Jersey Devils to win the franchise’s first title in 2012.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Eventually, with Doughty joining the team in 2008 coupled with steady growth from Brown, Quick and Kopitar, the Kings returned to the playoffs in 2010 before capturing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2012.
Kopitar has stood out on a team that has had many greats, including NHL all-time leading scorer Wayne Gretzky.
“It’s really hard for me to sit here and say I’m the greatest King. That’s just not my personality. Far from it,” Kopitar told The Times’ Helene Elliott in 2023. “There’s been great Kings in this organization, with Marcel, Luc, Dave [Taylor], Wayne, Blakey [Rob Blake]. The list can go on for a little bit. Brownie. Individually, yes, but it’s about collective wins.”
With Kopitar’s decision, the biggest roster question facing the Kings remains whether they can re-sign Adrian Kempe to a long-term deal. Kempe, who has led the team in points the last two seasons, is in the final year of his contract.
The Kings open the preseason Sunday against the Ducks in the Empire Classic at Toyota Arena in Ontario. They begin the regular season against the Colorado Avalanche at Crypto.com Arena on Oct. 7.
This is a developing story. The Times will have more on Kopitar’s decision to retire at the end of the season soon.
Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck has won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender, becoming the first at the position to do so since Carey Price a decade ago.
Hellebuyck was unveiled as the top MVP vote-getter on an awards show Thursday night prior to Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, hosted by actor and former Arizona State wide receiver Isaiah Mustafa.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar won the Lady Byng for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct for a third time.
Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl finished second in the Hart voting and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov third, a single point ahead of Colorado’s reigning MVP Nathan MacKinnon, as chosen by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Hellebuyck was a landslide winner of the Vezina as picked by general managers, receiving 31 of 32 first-place votes.
Hellebuyck won the Vezina for a second year in a row and for the third time in his career. He backstopped the Jets to the Presidents’ Trophy for the best regular season and the William Jennings Trophy for the fewest goals allowed before losing in the second round of the playoffs to Dallas.
Price was the last to pull off the Hart-Vezina double in 2015. Hellebuyck is just the sixth goalie to do it, joining Price, Jose Theodore in 2002, Dominik Hasek in 1997 and ‘98 and Jacques Plante in ’62.
Kucherov, the Art Ross Trophy winner for leading all scorers with 122 points this season, was also chosen for the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player, as voted on by his peers. The Russian winger was MVP in 2019 when the Lightning finished atop the standings.
Draisaitl, the Rocket Richard Trophy recipient for scoring a league-high 52 goals, won the Hart in 2020 after the season was cut short by the pandemic. He became the first German player to be MVP.
A majority of the awards were already presented over the past few weeks, given out as surprises for the first time with no advanced notice. Colorado’s Cale Makar got the Norris as the top defenseman, Florida’s Aleksander Barkov the Selke as the best defensive forward and Washington’s Spencer Carbery the Jack Adams as coach of the year.
