With his playing days winding down, Kings captain Anze Kopitar was honored in a pregame ceremony prior to Thursday night’s game between Nashville and Los Angeles.
From an earlier press release:
Kopitar, 38, has spent his entire playing career in the NHL with the LA Kings, accumulating 1,311 points (451-860=1,311) in 1,511 career regular-season games. On Saturday, March 14, Kopitar scored twice to mark his 1,307th and 1,308th career points, surpassing Marcel Dionne (550-757=1,307) to become the eighth player in franchise history to hold the Kings’ outright points record. Kopitar played his 1,500th career regular-season NHL game on Thursday, March 5, to become just the 25th different player in NHL history to achieve the milestone and the ninth player in League history to play in 1,500 games with the same franchise.
The veteran centerman notched his 1,300th career NHL point (446-854=1,300) on Feb. 5, becoming the 39th player in NHL history to reach such threshold, the 16th to do so with a single franchise, and just the eighth to do so while born and trained outside of North America.
The Jesenice, Slovenia native also holds all-time regular-season franchise marks for seasons played (20), games played (1,511), assists (860), overtime points (33), overtime assists (24), 20-goal seasons (14) and game-winning goals (79) as well as Kings playoff records for games played (103) and overtime goals (3). He has led the Kings in points 15 times (most recently in 2022-23), tied with Crosby (15x w/ PIT entering 2025-26) for the second-most seasons as points leader for one franchise in NHL history, behind only Gordie Howe (17x w/ DET). They also are three of four players in League history to have at least 15 seasons as any team’s points leader, along with Wayne Gretzky (19x total; 9x w/ EDM, 7x w/ LAK, 3x w/ NYR). Kopitar (15x), Dionne (9x) and Gretzky (7x) make up the top three on that list for Kings franchise history.
Kopitar’s trophy case includes two Stanley Cup rings (2012 & 2014), two Selke Trophies (2015-16 & 2017-18), three Lady Byng Memorial Trophies (2015-16, 2022-23 & 2024-25) and the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award (2021-22). Only Wayne Gretzky (7) has earned more individual NHL Awards while playing with the Kings than Kopitar (6).
Video below via LA Kings PR:
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