November 1, 2026
November 1, 2026
Kings’ 2025-26 Season: Anze Kopitar’s Final Ride
The Kings’ 2025-26 season was built around one goodbye. Anze Kopitar announced in September that his 20th NHL campaign would be his last, and Los Angeles spent the winter trying to send him out properly. The year brought a coaching change, a blockbuster trade, and a franchise scoring record. It ended at 35-27-20 with 90 points, a fifth straight playoff berth, and a first-round sweep at the hands of Colorado.
New general manager Ken Holland inherited a team that had won 48 games but lost to Edmonton in the first round for a fourth straight spring. His first summer reshaped the blue line. Vladislav Gavrikov left for the Rangers on a seven-year deal, and Tanner Jeannot signed in Boston. Holland answered with veterans, adding Brian Dumoulin, Cody Ceci, Joel Armia, goaltender Anton Forsberg, and 40-year-old Corey Perry.
The moves signaled a club built to win now rather than later. Jim Hiller returned behind the bench after posting a 48-25-9 record the previous year. Drew Doughty, Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield, and Kevin Fiala anchored a lineup that still looked dangerous. Darcy Kuemper remained the starter in goal.
Every storyline, however, bent toward Kopitar. The captain had spent his entire career in Los Angeles and lifted the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. Each road arena now meant one last visit. Each home game meant one fewer chance to watch the franchise’s greatest modern player.
The first two months offered real hope. Los Angeles went 5-3-4 in October and 7-3-3 in November, settling into the top three of the Pacific Division. Kempe set the pace offensively. On November 17, the club locked him up with an eight-year extension worth $85 million.
Yet a strange pattern had already taken root. The Kings kept reaching overtime and kept losing there. Those single points kept them in the race, but they rarely pushed them forward. That habit would follow the team all the way to April.
December exposed the flaws. Los Angeles went 4-7-2, and Holland traded veteran center Phillip Danault to Montreal on December 19 for a second-round pick. The offense sputtered, the special teams sagged, and Kuemper battled a series of injuries. Forsberg stepped in and quietly became the steadier option in net.
February nearly sank the season. The Kings managed one win in six games around the Olympic break. By the end of the month, their power play ranked 27th in the league and their penalty kill ranked 28th. Only three teams scored fewer goals per game.
Holland refused to let Kopitar’s final year drift away. On February 4, he pulled off the boldest move of his tenure. The Kings acquired Artemi Panarin from the Rangers for prospect Liam Greentree and two conditional picks, with New York retaining half his salary. Panarin then signed a two-year extension worth $11 million per season, as ABC7 reported on the blockbuster deal.
The message was unmistakable. Holland said he had no interest in a long-term rebuild. Panarin, the Rangers’ leading scorer in five of the previous six seasons, arrived to give the Kings the creative spark they had lacked. He delivered 27 points in 26 games, including nine goals.
The trade alone could not stop the slide. A 6-4 loss to Vegas was followed by an 8-1 humiliation in Edmonton. Los Angeles sat sixth in the Pacific, three points out of a wild-card spot. On March 1, Holland fired Hiller and handed the bench to associate coach D.J. Smith, according to NHL.com’s report on the coaching change.
The Kings were 24-21-14 at the time. Smith, a former Ottawa head coach, had 23 games to save the season. Holland then kept retooling at the deadline. Perry was sent to Tampa Bay, Warren Foegele went to Ottawa, and Scott Laughton arrived from Toronto.
Four days into the new regime, Kopitar played his 1,500th NHL game, becoming just the 25th player to reach the mark. Nine days later, he claimed something even rarer. Against New Jersey on March 14, he scored twice, and his second goal pushed him past Marcel Dionne as the franchise’s all-time points leader with 1,308, as the Associated Press detailed from that night.
The Devils won 6-4, but the result hardly mattered to the crowd. Dionne’s record had stood for decades. Kopitar seized it with his trademark patience, one shift at a time.
The overtime curse lingered into spring. On April 2, a 5-4 shootout loss to Nashville gave Los Angeles its 19th overtime loss, a new NHL single-season record. The Kings eventually finished with 20. Each one stung, but each one also kept them alive.
Then the team caught fire. Los Angeles went 6-1-2 in April and ripped off five straight wins at the perfect moment. On April 13 in Seattle, Byfield scored twice in a 5-3 victory. When Nashville lost to San Jose that same night, the Kings had clinched, a climb Smith himself called steep in NHL.com’s recap of the clinching win. Under Smith, the club went 11-6-6.
The reward was a first-round meeting with the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche. Los Angeles pushed the Avalanche hard in Denver, falling 2-1 in Game 1. Game 2 hurt even more. Panarin’s power-play goal gave the Kings a 1-0 lead in the third period. Then Gabriel Landeskog tied it with 3:35 left, and Nicolas Roy won it 7:44 into overtime.
Forsberg made 34 saves that night and deserved a better fate. The series shifted to Los Angeles with the Kings needing a miracle. Colorado won Game 3 by a 4-2 score. On April 26, the Avalanche closed it out with a 5-1 victory.
The final minutes belonged to Kopitar. Fans chanted his name and stood through his last two shifts. Afterward, Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar lined up to shake his hand, a scene captured in TSN’s account of Kopitar’s farewell.
Kempe was the engine of the Kings’ 2025-26 season. He scored 36 goals and added 37 assists for 73 points, posting his third straight 70-point campaign. Eight of his goals were game-winners, and four of those came in three-on-three overtime.
Byfield took another step with 24 goals and 49 points. Alex Laferriere played all 82 games and added 44 points. Brandt Clarke broke out on defense, setting career highs with eight goals, 32 assists, and 40 points.
In goal, Forsberg proved to be the bargain of the summer. He went 16-12-5 with a .910 save percentage and three shutouts, then started all four playoff games. Kopitar contributed 38 points in his final year and finished his career with 1,316 points in 1,521 games, all with Los Angeles.
The Kings’ 2025-26 season will be remembered first as Kopitar’s farewell. He retired as the franchise leader in games, points, and playoff appearances. Only Wayne Gretzky produced more playoff points in a Kings sweater. No player did more to turn Los Angeles into a hockey city.
The year also left a harder truth. The Kings fell in the first round for a fifth straight spring, their seventh straight first-round series loss since the championship era. The Panarin trade and the coaching change proved the organization would fight for its captain. They did not prove it could get past the West’s elite. As Kopitar heads home to Slovenia, Kempe, Byfield, and Panarin inherit a team still searching for its next deep run.
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