Kings’ Anze Kopitar scores 400th goal on Wednesday vs. Golden Knights

Los Angeles Kings’ forward Anze Kopitar scored his 400th career goal on an empty netter, sealing a 4-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night.

Kopitar become the fourth player to reach the 400-goal plateau as a member of the Kings, joining Luc Robitaille, Marcel Dionne, and Dave Taylor.

It’s been quite a career for the 2005 first-round pick. Widely considered one of the best players to ever skate for Los Angeles, Kopitar scored his 1,000th point in the 2020-21 and now sits tied him for second with Luc Robitaille on the all-time points list in franchise history with 1,154 (as of Nov. 9).

Kopitar, who was the first NHL player from Slovenia, was a major factor in the Kings winning their first two Stanley Cup championships in franchise history. He led the team in scoring in 2011-12 with 76 points, including eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points in 20 post-season games (tied with teammate Dustin Brown for the team lead), helping the Kings win their first title.

In 2013-14, Kopitar led the team in scoring for the seventh consecutive season with 70 points, then led the entire NHL in playoff scoring with 26 points in 26 games, helping the Kings win their second Stanley Cup in three years.

Through the first 17 years of his career, Kopitar has led the team in scoring in all but two seasons: his rookie campaign in 2006-07, and in 2016-17 when he missed six games with injury.

Beyond the Stanley Cup rings, Kopitar has taken home his fair share of hardware. He won the Frank J. Selke Trophy for the league’s best defensive forward in 2015-16 and 2017-18, and won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for exhibiting the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct twice in 2015-16 and in 2022-23.

Kopitar is in the last year of an eight-year, $80 million contract signed in 2016. Last July, he signed a two-year, $14 million extension that kicks in next season and expires at the end of the 2025-26 campaign.