Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of the upcoming 2025-26 season, which will be his 20th with the team.

A two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Kings, Kopitar could become the team’s all-time scoring leader this season, overtaking Marcel Dionne’s 1,307 points. Kopitar sits at 1,278 entering the season.

Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon at the team’s El Segundo training facility, the 38-year-old Kopitar said he was retiring to spend time with his wife Ines and his 10-year-old daughter Neza and 8-year-old son Jakob.

“They deserve a husband and a dad to be home and present,” he said.

Kopitar added that he wanted to announce his retirement plans early to avoid being a distraction to the team during the season.

“A simple way to put it is I want to get this out of the way now to where I’m not a distraction for the team,” he said on the team’s first day of training camp. “For example if we’re in a fight coming down the stretch the last thing I want to do is take any, you know, attention away from the team.”

The Kings’ regular season begins Oct. 7.

The Kings selected Kopitar with the 11th choice in the 2005 NHL draft when he was playing for Sodertaljesk SK in Sweden. He made his debut with the Kings in the 2006-07 season, finishing fourth in the voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s top rookie and beginning a streak of six consecutive seasons with at least 20 goals.

Kopitar was awarded both the Lady Byng Trophy, as the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability, and the Frank J. Selke Trophy, as the best defensive forward, in the 2015-16 season, the first player from the Kings to win either award.

The Slovenian also won the Selke Trophy in the 2017-18 season and the Lady Byng Trophy in the 2022-23 and 2024-25 seasons.

Kopitar’s announcement came hours after another major L.A. sports figure — the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw — announced that he will retire at the end of the current season.