Kings Retire Kopitar's No. 11 With Bronze Statue
The Kings will retire Kopitar's No. 11 on February 24, 2027.
And the franchise center is getting a bronze statue outside Crypto.com Arena to match. It's the kind of double honor reserved for the handful of players who define a team.
And Kopitar spent two decades doing exactly that in Los Angeles.
Kings Retire Kopitar's No. 11
The ceremony is set for a home game against the Montreal Canadiens, with the statue unveiling happening before puck drop. (NHL.com) An Original Six opponent on a late-February night is a deliberate stage choice.
The Kings want every eyeball in the hockey world locked in.
Kopitar's own words captured the weight of it: "It's a huge honor to have my number retired and a statue by the LA Kings.
And it's hard to put into words." (NHL.com)
The club is treating Kopitar Night as a tentpole event.
Game: included in all season-ticket memberships, and the Kings introduced a six-game ticket plan that bundles the ceremony in. Single-game tickets aren't live yet but are expected later in the summer.
The Career Behind Kopitar's No. 11
This is what makes the honor feel earned rather than ceremonial: Kopitar played all 20 of his NHL seasons in Los Angeles. And he never wore another sweater. Selected 11th overall in the 2005 NHL Draft, he scored his first two career goals in his debut on October 6, 2006, in Anaheim. Two decades later, he walked away as the longest-serving player in club history.
The stat sheet is staggering. He retires as the Kings' all-time leader in assists, points, games played, seasons.
And game-winning goals. (ESPN) That breaks down to 452 goals and 864 assists across 1,521 regular-season games, the most in franchise history. (NHL.com) On March 14, 2026, in New Jersey, he posted his 1,307th and 1,308th career points to officially become the all-time leading scorer in Kings history.
He wore the captain's "C" for the final 10 seasons. (NHL.com) His last game was a 5-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4 of the Western Conference quarterfinals. (ESPN) A quiet ending, sure. It doesn't dent the resume one bit.
Which Kings Players Have Retired Numbers?
Kopitar becomes the eighth player in franchise history to have his number raised to the rafters.
And the first since Dustin Brown in 2023. He joins Rogie Vachon at #30, Marcel Dionne at #16, Dave Taylor at #18, Wayne Gretzky at #99, Luc Robitaille at #20, Rob Blake at #4.
And Brown at #23.
That list is the mountaintop of the franchise.
And Kopitar sits at the top of the record book alongside it.
Gretzky is the greatest player ever, but he spent only a slice of his prime in LA. Dionne was a scoring machine on teams that never got over the hump. Kopitar is the one who owns the numbers and anchored the franchise for two full decades. That's why No. 11 belongs up there, not as a courtesy but as a statement.
Why Is Kopitar Getting a Bronze Statue?
The bronze outside Crypto.com Arena puts Kopitar in the smallest club the Kings have. He'll be the fourth player honored with a statue, joining Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille. And Dustin Brown. (NHL.com) Look at that group and the message writes itself: these are the faces of the franchise, frozen in metal for every fan walking through the gates.
February 24, 2027 is still over a year away, and that gap tells you something.
The Kings aren't rushing this. They're building a statue, curating a night. And giving their franchise center the full send-off a 20-year, one-team career deserves. When the lights dim and No. 11 rises against the Canadiens, how many fans in that building will have been there for his debut back in 2006? That kind of run doesn't come around anymore. Savor every second of it.