{"id":139195,"date":"2023-07-06T20:16:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T00:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=139195"},"modified":"2023-07-06T20:16:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T00:16:51","slug":"los-angeles-kings-lock-up-franchise-centre-anze-kopitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/06\/los-angeles-kings-lock-up-franchise-centre-anze-kopitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Kings Lock-Up Franchise Centre, Anze Kopitar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/07\/01\/cam-talbot-signs-with-new-team\/\" target=\"_self\"> Los Angeles Kings<\/a> have committed to their franchise centreman short-term. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kopitan01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anze Kopitar<\/a> has a new contract, two years at a $7 million annual average. The extension begins to start the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">HE&#39;S STAYING H\ud83d\udc51ME. <\/p>\n<p>We&#39;ve signed the Captain to a two-year contract extension! <\/p>\n<p>Read more \ud83d\udcf0 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Hqrpn8mOzx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/Hqrpn8mOzx<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hHrGNcThX2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/hHrGNcThX2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; LA Kings (@LAKings) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LAKings\/status\/1677056669514186753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Anze Kopitar Contract Helps Him Stay In Hollywood<\/h2>\n<p>Kopitar appears to be an ageless wonder at this point in his career. The 35-year-old pieced together another productive season. Kopitar notched 28 goals and 46 assists for 76 points in 82 games. In addition, it&#8217;s a great sign that Kopitar remained healthy throughout the year.<\/p>\n<p>Kopitar still has plenty of fuel left in the tank. He helped linemate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kempead01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Kempe<\/a> hit the 40-goal benchmark this season for the first time. Kopitar&#8217;s ability to place pucks on his teammates&#8217; sticks creates this production. The young Kings&#8217; group has modeled and grown around Kopitar&#8217;s style of play. Overall, the team is strong on both ends of the ice.<\/p>\n<p>The Kings&#8217; vital source of offence came from Kopitar and Kempe&#8217;s line. Together, Kopitar and Kempe scored 3.05 goals per hour on-ice 5v5. Without those two, the Kings scored only 2.47 goals per hour 5v5.<\/p>\n<h3>The Future Of Kings&#8217; Centres<\/h3>\n<p>Los Angeles <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/06\/27\/los-angeles-kings-acquire-pierre-luc-dubois-via-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">acquired<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/duboipi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-06_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> from the Winnipeg Jets this summer. Dubois will help add to the Kings&#8217; primary scoring next season. The team locked him up for eight years at a $8.5 million annual average. Kopitar is likely to pass the torch to Dubois to fill his role.<\/p>\n<p>However, for the 2023-24 season, Kopitar proved he&#8217;s still the Kings&#8217; number-one centre. He&#8217;s the Kings&#8217; time-on-ice leader every single night that plays against top competition. Furthermore, Kopitar is heavily involved in special teams. He plays the power play and penalty kill.<\/p>\n<p>Kopitar&#8217;s new contract is A-tier value and term for the Kings heading into next season. On top of being a franchise icon, he will be critical in the Kings&#8217; future quest for the cup.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Kings have committed to their franchise centreman short-term. Anze Kopitar has a new contract, two years at a $7 million annual average. The extension begins to start the 2024-25 season. HE&#39;S STAYING H\ud83d\udc51ME. We&#39;ve signed the Captain to a two-year contract extension! Read more \ud83d\udcf0 https:\/\/t.co\/Hqrpn8mOzx pic.twitter.com\/hHrGNcThX2 &mdash; LA Kings (@LAKings) July [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3765,"featured_media":139198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4547,34,4548],"tags":[2253,390,5769,289],"class_list":["post-139195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-adrian-kempe","tag-anze-kopitar","tag-los-angeles-kings-news","tag-pierre-luc-dubois"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3765"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}