LA Kings Announce 2025-26 Team Awards

The LA Kings announced their annual Team Awards, acknowledging individual players for their performance and contributions to the organization. This year’s honorees are:

Bill Libby Memorial Award - "Most Valuable Player": Adrian Kempe

Forward Adrian Kempe was selected by the media as the Bill Libby Memorial Award winner for Most Valuable Player on the Kings this season. The native of Kramfors, Sweden, led the Kings in nearly every offensive category this year, including goals (36), assists (37), points (36-37=73), game-winning goals (8), shots on goal (226), overtime goals (4), shootout goals (6), multi-goal games (6), and multi-point games (16). Kempe’s pacesetting totals were partially fueled by his career-long seven-game road point streak (5-6=11) from Oct. 11 – 28, 2025. During that streak, Kempe became the first player in franchise history to net the game-winner in overtime in consecutive games with his extra-time tallies on Oct. 21 in St. Louis and Oct. 23 in Dallas.

Those consecutive overtime goals helped the winger secure his spot as the co-owner of a pair of LA Kings franchise records, tying for the most such goals in a single campaign (4 OTG) and for the most career regular-season overtime goals (11 OTG) in franchise history. Kempe recorded several additional milestones over the course of the 2025-26 campaign, including scoring his 200th career NHL goal on Nov. 4 vs. Winnipeg, representing his native Sweden at the Olympic Winter Games for the first time this past February in Milan, and playing in his 700th career regular-season game on March 24 at Calgary. The 29-year-old winger recorded his fourth career 35-goal campaign this year, making him the fourth Swedish-born player in NHL history with as many such seasons.

Mark Bavis Memorial Award - "Best Newcomer": Artemi Panarin 
Forward Artemi Panarin has been selected as the Mark Bavis Memorial Award winner for Best Newcomer. Acquired via trade from the New York Rangers on Feb. 4, 2026, Panarin made an immediate impact for the Kings by recording two assists in his debut appearance on Feb. 25 against the Vegas Golden Knights. In doing so, the Korkino, Russia native became the third skater in the past 20 years to record multiple assists in his debut with the Kings and marked the first pair of his now-27 points (9-18=27) through 26 games played with the team. Since he joined the organization just over two months ago, Panarin’s 18 assists and cumulative +9 rating are the best among all Kings skaters in that span, while his seven multi-point performances for Los Angeles are tied for the fourth-most such games by a Kings player this season overall. The 34-year-old winger is one of just two skaters to have recorded multiple three-point games for the Kings during the 2025-26 campaign.

Outstanding Defenseman: Brandt Clarke
In his second full NHL season, Brandt Clarke was selected as the Kings’ Outstanding Defenseman this season after setting new career-highs in games played (82), goals (8), assists (32), points (8-32=40), power-play points (13), shots on goal (159), time-on-ice per game (19:48), and game-winning goals (2). The native of Nepean, Ontario, led all Kings defensemen in goals, assists, points, power-play points, and game-winning goals, while his 32 helpers on the campaign were the second most among all team skaters. The 23-year-old recorded 185 blocked shots this season, the third-most by any skater in the League this year and the third most in a single-season in Kings history since the NHL began tracking the statistic in 2007-08.

Best Defensive Player: Anze Kopitar
Captain Anze Kopitar has been named the Kings’ Best Defensive Player for a franchise-record eighth time after finishing the final season of his two-decade career with the highest plus/minus rating among all team skaters, posting a +19 through 67 games played on the 2025-26 campaign. The 38-year-old center also led all Kings forwards in blocked shots (61), face-off wins (744), and face-off winning percentage (56.9%). Kopitar’s 56.9% face-off winning percentage was tied for the 22nd best among all NHL players to have taken at least 100 draws this season and tied for his third best percentage in his 20-year career.

Most Inspirational Player - "Ace Bailey Memorial Award": Anze Kopitar
Voted by the Kings players, captain Anze Kopitar has been named the recipient of the Ace Bailey Award for Most Inspirational Player for the fourth time in his career. The former Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award winner, two-time Frank J. Selke Memorial Trophy winner, three-time Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner, and two-time Stanley Cup Champion added several more accomplishments to his list of accolades this past season. Finishing with 38 points (12-26=38) in 67 regular-season appearances, Kopitar recorded his 20th consecutive campaign with at least 25 assists, tying for the eighth-most seasons in NHL history.

In total, the Jesenice, Slovenia native played 1,521 games for the Kings, the 23rd-most games played by any skater in NHL history and the seventh-most games played with a single franchise. On March 14 in New Jersey, Kopitar was crowned as the all-time leading scorer in LA Kings history by posting his 1,307th and 1,308th career points. With his pair of goals in that game, Kopitar broke the record that had been held by Marcel Dionne (550-757=1,307) for more than 45 years and became the eighth player to hold the title. Kopitar finished his regular-season career with 1,316 career points (452-864=1,316) and is just the eighth player born and trained outside of North America to score at least 1,300 points in NHL history. The Kings’ captain was also selected by the Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PWHA) as the team’s nominee for the Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Unsung Hero Award: Anton Forsberg
Goaltender Anton Forsberg earned 16 wins in 31 starts during his first season as a member of the Kings after signing as a free agent on July 1, 2025. The 33-year-old netminder posted a career-best 2.57 goals-against average (GAA) and maintained a .910 save-percentage (SV%) this season, marking the second-best SV% of his career behind only his .917 SV% campaign in 2021-22 with the Ottawa Senators. The native of Härnösand, Sweden, posted three blank-sheets in his inaugural season in Los Angeles, his second consecutive season with as many shutouts. Forsberg was announced as the NHL’s ‘First Star’ of the Week ending April 12, after going 3-0-0 with a 0.97 goals-against average (GAA), .964 save percentage (SV%) and one shutout while stopping 80 of 83 shots faced. On April 13, Forsberg made 30 saves against the Seattle Kraken to secure his fifth consecutive victory and help the Kings clinch a fifth consecutive berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 6-3, 200-pound goalkeeper concluded his first campaign with the Kings ranked in the top 10 in SV% (t-6th; .910), shutouts (t-9th; 3) and GAA (10th; 2.57) among all NHL netminders to have played at least 25 games.

Most Popular Player: Andrei Kuzmenko
The LA Kings Booster Club voted forward Andrei Kuzmenko as the team’s Most Popular Player for the 2025-26 season. The native of Yakutsk, Russia, scored 13 goals and 25 points (13-12=25) in 52 games played during his first full campaign as a member of the Kings. The 5-11, 200-pound forward recorded 13 power-play points (8-5=13) this year, tied for the second-most among all team skaters. Kuzmenko recorded five separate multi-point games for Los Angeles this season, including a two-goal game on his 30th birthday on Feb. 4, 2026, against the Vegas Golden Knights. In doing so, Kuzmenko became the fifth different skater in franchise history to record a multi-goal effort on his birthday.

Jim Fox Community Service Award: **Kevin Fiala**
For the fourth time in his career, Kevin Fiala was chosen as the winner of this year's Jim Fox Community Service Award. The award recognizes the player that best exemplifies strong community outreach as determined by the Kings Care Foundation. The native of St. Gallen, Switzerland, who was also chosen as the team’s nominee for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for the third consecutive year, has maintained a strong involvement in the lives of Los Angeles residents through his work with the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and his “Fiala’s Friends” program. Fiala is the first Kings player to win the Jim Fox Community Service Award on four occasions since Dustin Brown and is the first to do so in four consecutive seasons.

Daryl Evans Youth Hockey Service Award: Jacob Moverare 
Defenseman Jacob Moverare has been chosen as the Daryl Evans Youth Hockey Service Award winner by the LA Kings Hockey Development Department. This marks Moverare’s first time winning the award and recognizes the 27-year-old blueliner’s enthusiastic involvement in the Kings introductory Learn-to-Play and recreational ball hockey programming throughout the season.