EL SEGUNDO –– Anže Kopitar made it official Thursday: His 20th season as a King will be his last.
Arguably the greatest player in franchise history and undoubtedly the most prominent competitor from Slovenia, Kopitar is the Kings’ all-time leader in games played and assists, with Marcel Dionne’s organizational mark for career points in his sights this season.
“After last season, I had a bit of time to think and talk with the family, to see where the path is for me and where it’s going. After lots and lots of thinking, I’ve decided that this year’s gonna be my last year playing in the NHL,” said Kopitar, seated next to his wife, Ines, and their two children. “These guys have been with me for the past 20-plus years, and now they deserve a husband and a dad to be home and present.”
Kopitar, 38, made his revelation on the same day that 37-year-old longtime Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw announced his impending retirement. The two icons, almost identically sized, each helped bring two championships to the city where Kershaw also spent his entire career from 2008 to present. The duo even graced the cover of Sports Illustrated together in 2014.
“I don’t think (Kershaw) knew. I had no idea,” Kopitar said. “I guess it’s kind of funny how everything worked out like that. There must have been something in the universe for us to decide to do it together, on this day.”
Kopitar said he made his announcement before the season so he wouldn’t detract from anything the team was trying to accomplish during his final campaign, for which he said he still had a lot of “motivation, energy and desire to compete at the very highest level.”
He also said that his decision was final, regardless of any feats or unfinished business that may define the Kings’ upcoming campaign, which begins Oct. 7 when they host the Colorado Avalanche.
“My mind is made up. It was a hard decision, and I will put 100% of my energy into this season, it doesn’t really matter where it takes us,” Kopitar said.
A quintessential 200-foot center, Kopitar joined Patrice Bergeron, Rod Brind’Amour and Sergei Fedorov as the only four NHL players to record at least 1,000 points and win multiple Frank J. Selke trophies as the league’s best defensive forward.
When Kopitar initially interviewed with the Kings, his presence was palpable, said Triple Crown legend and then-general manager Dave Taylor. Not only did the Kings get what they believed to be the best skater in the draft behind Sidney Crosby – Kopitar went 10 slots behind “Sid the Kid” – but they also snagged a talent that would elevate their profile.
Crosby came through the Canadian junior ranks, the most established pipeline to the NHL. Kopitar, on the other hand, was the first Slovenian to ever play in the league, and remained just one of three Slovenian NHL’ers. The other two combined for just 47 games, 1,407 fewer than Kopitar.
“Looking back now, I never thought, maybe [only] in my wildest dreams, that I was going to play 20 years in the NHL, win a couple Cups and play as many games as I did,” Kopitar said.
In that same 2005 draft, the Kings picked goalie Jonathan Quick in the third round. In 2008, they selected another franchise cornerstone, defenseman Drew Doughty, second overall. Already in the fold was Dustin Brown, the man who would become Kopitar’s closest friend and captain the Kings to their only two Stanley Cups, in 2012 and 2014.
“I talked to (Brown) a little bit [about the decision]. He’s always been the voice of reason,” Kopitar said. “He (joked) he was surprised I signed for two more years, so I guess that was the comment that really solidified my decision.”
While Kopitar’s position atop the team leaderboard in scoring was a perennial certainty for the better part of two decades, his finest individual campaign came in 2017-18. His 92 points remain a personal benchmark and he won his second Selke Trophy, with Doughty finishing second in the Norris Trophy voting.
Little did that duo know that they were in for a bumpy ride ahead, as their fortunes flatlined the following season, the first of three that concluded way outside the playoff picture.
“I always looked at L.A. like my home. We always felt extremely comfortable here. My kids were born here. It didn’t really cross my mind to even think or explore going anywhere else,” Kopitar said. “The fact that we were the first team to bring the Cup to L.A. makes it special, and then to follow it up with another one, those are the core memories that you can’t ignore even when times were a little bit rough.”
Rather than move on from their aging stars, the Kings stuck with Kopitar and Doughty until the present day. They retooled the pieces around them in shorter order than contemporaries like the Ducks, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, who executed full-blown (and still ongoing) rebuilds.
Yet Kopitar and Doughty are still in search of their first playoff series victory since their jubilant hoisting of the Cup in 2014, having fallen in four consecutive first rounds to the same opponent, the Edmonton Oilers. Now, Kopitar’s swan song could be the soundtrack of an inspired season.
“When I really broke the news to (Doughty), he was a little bit sad,” said Kopitar of the only other remaining link to the championship teams. “But there’s still some time to play together, hang out together, really have a good season and see where it takes us.”
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