The Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) announced today that center Anze Kopitar is the LA Kings’ nominee for the 2026 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is awarded each year in recognition of the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.” Each of the League’s 32 member clubs will have one player nominated, as determined by the members of the PWHA who cover that team.
Kopitar, 38, was sidelined during his 20th and final NHL season after sustaining an injury to his foot while blocking a shot against Minnesota on Oct. 13, 2025. After missing four games, Kopitar returned to action on Oct. 25 against Nashville, logging nearly 20:00 of time-on-ice (TOI). The captain was injured for a second time this season, missing an additional 11 games in January before returning on Jan. 31 in Philadelphia. In 62 games played so far in this season, the veteran center has recorded 12 goals and 24 assists for 36 points (12-24=36) with a team-best +16 rating, five power-play goals, 57 blocked shots and 690 face-offs won.
On March 14 in New Jersey, Kopitar scored twice for 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. The 38-year-old center is the 10th active player to lead his franchise in points and the third to achieve the feat this season, following Sidney Crosby (PIT) and Mark Scheifele (WPG/ATL). The others in that group are Alex Ovechkin (WSH), Steven Stamkos (TBL), Aleksander Barkov (FLA), Roman Josi (NSH), Jonathan Marchessault (VGK), Jared McCann (SEA) and Clayton Keller (UTA). Kopitar notched his 1,300th career NHL point on Feb. 5 to become 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 played his 1,500th career regular season NHL game on March 5, making him just the 25th different player in NHL history to achieve the milestone and the ninth skater in League history to play in as many games with the same franchise. Across his now-1,516 career regular-season appearances, Kopitar has recorded only 358 penalty minutes (PIM) which is the lowest among all skaters to play in at least 1,500 games and is joined by Alex Delvecchio (383 PIM in 1,550 GP) as the only two with fewer than 400 PIM in their careers.
In addition to being the LA Kings’ all-time leading scorer the captain also holds all-time regular-season franchise marks for seasons played (20), games played (1,516), assists (862), overtime points (34), overtime assists (25), 20-goal seasons (14) and game-winning goals (79) as well as franchise playoff records for games played (103) and overtime goals (3). He has led the Kings in points 15 times over his career (most recently in 2022-23), is 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 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 Championships (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).
