For the ninth straight season, Anze Kopitar will be the Los Angeles Kings captain and look to extend his legacy with the franchise as he looks to add to his already record-setting assist total for his career.
LA Kings Player Profile: Anze Kopitar
Position: Center
Shoots: Left
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 225 pounds
2023-24 Stats
Games Played: 82
Goals: 26
Assists: 44
Points: 70
+/-: 11
Average Ice Time: 19:39
What to expect from Anze Kopitar in the 2024-25 season?
For the second straight season, Anze Kopitar broke 70 points even though his assists continued to trend downwards from 48 in 2021-22 to 46 in 2022-23 and then 44 this past season. The reason he has been able to break this point total is because he has had back-to-back seasons with 25+ goals, a mark he hadn't broken since the 2017-18 season.
The goal scoring has definitely picked up the past two years due to an incredible shooting percentage of 17.8% over the past two seasons. This is well above his career average of 13% and it remains to be seen if he can have a third straight season being that efficient.
Kopitar will once again have Adrian Kempe to his right but it remains to be seen who will be the left win on the top line. However, there should be a change on the left side with Quinton Byfield expected to move to center for this season.
The expectation is that the likely replacement will be Alex Laferriere, who was a pleasant surprise last season. While it was a great story, the pressure will certainly be on Laferriere to not only match but improve on his performance.