Kings announce new captain after Anze Kopitar’s retirement

The Los Angeles Kings are without Anze Kopitar for the first time since his NHL debut in 2006-07. 20 years of reliable leadership and production are no more, with Kopitar having retired after the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, Los Angeles has named a new captain, and the honor goes to a longtime teammate of the former captain.

The Kings have announced Drew Doughty as the 15th captain in franchise history. Doughty has been a mainstay on the LA blueline for over a decade. Now, he wears the C on his sweater to lead this team into its new era.

“Drew Doughty has earned this,” said Kings general manager Ken Holland in a statement released by the team. “He’s a champion who’s won Stanley Cups and competed at the highest level of this game for a long time, and he’s shown he can lead this team by the way he competes every day. That’s the standard we want to set, and there’s no one better to set it than Drew.”

Doughty has spent his entire career with the Kings to this point. He was on both of the teams that won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. In 2015-16, he won the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the league.

“The Kings mean everything to me. I’ve played my entire career here, and I want to lead this team by example, showing what it means to be a King and what it takes to win championships,” Doughty said as part of his own statement on Wednesday.

Los Angeles begins its 2026-27 campaign on September 30 against the Colorado Avalanche.