The Kings announced that captain Anže Kopitar has been listed out week-to-week with a foot injury. There’s no IR placement for him yet, but there could be one coming soon to give L.A. a roster spot as they’re down to 12 healthy forwards.
Kopitar, who said last month that 2025-26 will be his final season, is now ticketed for what could be the lengthiest absence of his 20-year career. The ever-durable Slovenian center has never missed more than 10 consecutive regular-season games, and that came all the way back in his rookie season in 2006-07. He hasn’t missed more than a single game in a season since 2016-17. He sustained the injury in Monday’s shootout loss to the Wild, blocking a shot with his foot that caused him to miss yesterday’s loss to the Penguins (although he was initially considered a game-time decision). He hasn’t practiced since the injury, so it’s unlikely he’s stressed it further.
The 38-year-old has been a bright spot in what’s otherwise been a dismal start to the season in Los Angeles. The club is 1-3-1, tied for the second-lowest points total in the league, and is now without its top center for the foreseeable future. Kopitar was still holding down the workload he’s had for so many years, rattling off four assists in four games while averaging 18:45 per game and going 49-for-77 (63.6%) on faceoffs. The Kings were also allowing just 1.1 goals against per 60 minutes with Kopitar on the ice at even strength, the third-best figure on the team among forwards behind Phillip Danault and Samuel Helenius.
Under the hood, things don’t look particularly dire for the Kings. They’re still controlling possession well at 5-on-5 but have fallen victim to poor finishing (8.7%) and goaltending (.861 combined SV%). Missing Kopitar’s still high-end playmaking ability won’t help the former number, though. Losing his intangibles, as well as shouldering the loss of still a top-10 two-way forward in the league, is a hard pill to swallow for a club needing to string together a few wins to avoid sinking too far below the playoff line too early in the season.
Danault was elevated into Kopitar’s role between Andrei Kuzmenko and Adrian Kempe last night. It’s unclear if that will hold or if the club might rather give the younger Quinton Byfield, who’s largely assumed to be Kopitar’s long-term successor as the Kings’ new No. 1 pivot, a shot in those minutes. They’re also without offseason addition Corey Perry, who’s missed the entire year to date with a knee injury.