Kings franchise center Anze Kopitar will retire following the 2025-26 campaign, he said in a press conference Thursday. He confirms what he alluded to last month as he enters the final season of the two-year, $14MM extension he signed in 2023.
It’s a trying day for L.A. sports fans, who also saw MLB’s Dodgers announce future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw will retire at the end of the 2025 campaign. “This will be my last year in the NHL,” Kopitar said. “[My family has] been by my side for 20 years. They now deserve a husband and a dad. I want to get this announcement out of the way now, so it’s not a distraction. I don’t want the attention on me. The moves we made made us better. I can’t wait to start.”
Like his baseball counterpart, Kopitar was a first-round pick by his club and spent his entire career in Los Angeles. The 11th overall pick of the 2005 draft from Sweden’s Södertälje SK wasn’t only the first player from Slovenia to be drafted in the first round, he was the first to even make his NHL debut when he arrived in North America one year later. He hit the ground running in 2006-07, breaking camp with the Kings and immediately stepping in as their top-line center with 61 points in 72 games while seeing north of 20 minutes per game as a rookie. That wasn’t enough to make him a Calder Trophy nominee in a stacked class that included Evgeni Malkin, Paul Stastny, and Jordan Staal, though.
That marked the beginning of what will be a 20-year career, one of the most consistent of its kind. Kopitar continued to flirt with the point per game mark in his second year, making the All-Star Game after tallying 77 points in 82 appearances. He spent a few years struggling to carry the burden of a Kings club that was exiting a rebuild, but after he made the playoffs for the first time in 2010, he finished top 15 in Selke Trophy voting for eight consecutive seasons, cementing himself alongside Patrice Bergeron as the best two-way forward of the 2010s.
While the Kings have had some star power in their lengthy franchise history, Wayne Gretzky notwithstanding, it was Kopitar who first managed to bring the Stanley Cup to Hollywood. The Kings advanced to three straight Western Conference Finals from 2012-14 and ended up converting those into championships on the first and last occasion. During that three-year run, Kopitar’s 188 points in 211 regular-season games ranked 12th in the league, and his +60 rating ranked ninth. No one had more playoff points than Kopitar’s 55 in 64 games during that span.
L.A. had rewarded Kopitar nicely coming off his entry-level deal, giving him a seven-year, $47.6MM commitment following his sophomore season. Before that deal was due to expire in the summer of 2016, the Kings extended him on his big payday – an eight-year, $80MM contract that coincided with him assuming the captaincy from Dustin Brown. While the Kings’ team success dipped in the latter half of the 2010s, that contract saw Kopitar have his career year in 2017-18. He posted a 35-57–92 scoring line in 82 games, remarkably his only time over the point-per-game threshold, with a +21 rating to take home his second Selke Trophy and finishing third in MVP voting, his highest-ever finish for the Hart.
Even as Kopitar enters his age-38 season, he remains an effective top-six center. The slow signs of decline are there, though. His 21 goals and 67 points in 81 games last season tied for his lowest output since 2019, and his usage has ’dwindled’ to a few ticks under 19 minutes per game. He’s still one of the league’s best faceoff men, winning 57.2% of his draws last year, and has continued to rattle off four consecutive top-10 Selke finishes. One noticeable dropoff is his willingness to deliver and take contact. While never an overtly physical center, he recorded a career-low 31 hits in 2024-25. The tradeoff is durability – he’s only missed four games in the last eight seasons.
Those hoping for Kopitar to be a part of the Kings’ bench or front office next year will be disappointed. He’s planning on moving his family back to Slovenia after the season ends and isn’t leaving the door open to change his mind on retirement, he told Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period. Nonetheless, he’ll retire sitting right alongside Gretzky, Marcel Dionne, and Luc Robitaille as the most impactful players in franchise history, and he’s the only one to spend his entire career in California. His 1,278 career points rank second in franchise history behind Dionne’s 1,307, so he’ll end up as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer barring a highly disappointing sendoff campaign. With two Cups, two Selkes, and likely over 1,300 career points when all is said and done, he’s a virtual lock to be inducted into the Hall of Fame when he’s eligible in the class of 2029.
Kopitar now looks to deliver at least a playoff series win in his final season, something the Kings haven’t accomplished since winning the Cup 11 years ago. He’ll do so as his successor as the club’s leading offensive producer, winger Adrian Kempe, is also a pending unrestricted free agent.
All of us at PHR congratulate Kopitar on a spectacular career.
Image courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images.
Man, bummer! I know I’m biased but he’s the most underrated player in the league and certainly he’s one of the best Kings to ever play! Kopi, Brownie, Dewey, and Quickie are the Mt Rushmore of Kings. I’m gonna miss watching him!
No Gretzky, Or Rob Blake, Marcel Dionne?
It’s gotta be Gretzky, Dionne, Doughty, and Quick. You could replace Doughty with Kopitar but figured a defenseman should be included.
I guess this is what happens when a team has 58 years of history, It gets to a point where you have to expand the monument.
Can’t put Gretzky in there – its Kopitar, Robitaille, Doughty, Quick. Best at their respective positions and best as a King. Gretzky had a few great years in LA, but he’s an Oiler.
Brown has a stature outside the arena. Literally a monument and he’s not included?
He doesn’t need to double down on their mistake.
Nice player, but that was/is silly.
Kings fans know his, and Brown’s, importance to this franchise and that’s what really matters.
Wonderful career with an organization that has had more downs than ups.
Kopitar has had a solid career (& will be a Hall of Famer in his future one would surely assume). Congratulations to him on a fantastic hockey career but he has one more season of play. So for his sakes, go out and play strong and let things fall where they may.
As for him and his family moving back to Slovenia after the season, can’t blame him in wanting to get out of the hell hole of Los Angeles & the state of California in general. The state is run by bonafide idiots in every sense of the word but I digress.
Not sure what kind of person turns a posting about a man’s great career into a screed about his personal views? Maybe some meds and therapy for you?
I’ll keep saying it…he’s the modern Ron Francis.
So consistently great.
Great analogy. I agree.
It has been an honor to watch this man play for my beloved team for his entire career. I got my tickets his rookie year.
Most underrated player this century. If he played back east he would have gotten the respect he deserved. He is even a better person
For the guy that said California is a hell hole. I have lived here my entire life I love it here. Most Kings including Gretzky still love it and still live here. Why would you not want to. I can go to the beach on Saturday and snow skiing on Sunday.
Where would you want to go Texas? A wonderful state to change planes in when you’re going somewhere that matters. LA is a world city. A vacation destination and has the best weather on the planet. If you do not like it. Go back to the south where there is a way higher crime rate. Horrible education systems terrible public assistance and widespread poverty
Oh and those states have been run by the right for decades
Dude, California is 30th in the education system overall in the U.S. However, their K12 is among the worst in the nation. Their education is absolutely horrid and has been for decades. California’s poverty rate according to the LATimes and U.S. Census is tied for 1st in having the worst poverty rate (17.7% or 7 million residents) in the U.S. California has had 1,104,212 of crimes overall since 2023 (their also #1 in violent crimes and property crimes) making them #1 in the nation by a landslide (Texas is 2nd with 806,610). California has an absurd tax rate as it’s the highest in the nation. The entertainment industry is leaving the state at a rapid rate, and the list goes on. Also, LA is on pace to become a new Detroit. There are more people leaving the state than moving to the state. Simply put, California is utter crap. You have to be a hippie, leftist or something to “love it”.
@ftt (yawns) Damn, you must be hoping hard that Fox News starts a competing hockey site, where they loudly proclaim that hockey was invented in A!M!E!R!I!C!A!, that everyone in the league’s a White! Christian!, and that the team logos at center ICE (not “ice,” ICE) will be replaced by Trump’s face.
For the rest of us who chose to come here instead of to echo chamber MAGA-head subreddits, take the political BS elsewhere.
For people who claim to love the free market so much they want to let it decide who eats and gets surgery and stuff, they don’t seem to understand why it’s BOTH the most populous AND expensive state.
Mansions cost more than trailers.
More people want to live in the former rather than the latter.
Go find a political forum and stop spoiling the Kopitar love fest.
I think I was five when the Kings entered the league, I still love the Kings purple, And yellow uniforms.
The bullshit aside … as far as the great Kopi goes, go straight to the HHOF, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 hockey pucks. What a hell of a career he’s had.
Whats amazing is that he will be a HOFer (deserved) and probably first-ballot, but Brind’Amour still isnt in despite having a very similar career.
Put RBA in already!
Congratulations Kopi! The King of Kings!
Even in retirement people underrate him. He was leader when They won. Doubt any king was braindead enough to use illegal stick like Mcsorley did. Of course if they called Gretzky high stick. does it even matter. sorry forgot people today hate bringing up history. LMAO