Anze Kopitar Joins Three Lady Byng Trophy Finalists
Anze Kopitar is one of three finalists for the lady byng trophy for the 2025-26 season, putting the Kings captain in position to add a fourth win to one of hockey’s cleanest award résumés. The award goes to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.
Kopitar shares the finalist list with Montreal’s Cole Caufield and Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson. The Professional Hockey Writers Association selects the winner, and Kopitar has already been a finalist five times while winning the award three times.
Kopitar’s three-trophy chase
The Kings center enters this vote with a chance to become the fifth player in NHL history to win the trophy four or more times. Red Kelly and Pavel Datsyuk each won it four times, Wayne Gretzky won it five times, and Frank Boucher was chosen as the League’s most gentlemanly player seven times in eight seasons.
That company is limited, and Kopitar’s place in it is built on years of low-penalty, high-use work. He finished the 2025-26 regular season with 38 points in 67 games, including 12 goals and 26 assists, and recorded a plus-19 rating.
Los Angeles Kings numbers
The discipline numbers were even tighter. Kopitar logged 10 penalty minutes in 67 regular-season games, and only Trevor Moore had fewer among Kings skaters who played at least 40 games, with Moore at 8 penalty minutes. Kopitar was one of 20 skaters league-wide to score at least 30 points while recording 10 or fewer penalty minutes.
He also led all Kings forwards with 61 blocked shots, 744 face-off wins and a 56.9 percent face-off winning percentage. Those numbers sat alongside his 20th consecutive season with at least 25 assists, a run that kept his value rooted in production as well as control.
Wayne Gretzky in Kings history
The finalist nod also fits into Kings history. Kopitar played 1,521 regular-season games for Los Angeles, and on March 14 in New Jersey he became the all-time leading scorer in LA Kings history.
He already owns three Lady Byng wins, the same number as Wayne Gretzky in Kings history. Another win would move Kopitar into a narrower NHL class, and this finalist slot gives him another chance to do it while still carrying the same role he has held for years: captain, top face-off man, and one of the league’s most disciplined scorers.
