Teammates reflect on approaching 1,500 games of Anze Kopitar, another rare accomplishment for a special player

1,500 Games.

How rare is it to see somebody within the NHL play 1,500 regular-season games?

Well, how about some primary math.

There are roughly eight billion individuals on the earth.

Per NHL.com, as of Tuesday, 8,762 individuals have performed in at the very least one NHL regular-season recreation. The odds of somebody reaching the NHL? Approximately 1 in 1 million.

Included in these 8,762 are gamers like Angus Booth, Kenny Connors and Jared Wright, who’ve all performed precisely one NHL recreation, which got here for all three gamers on Monday night in Los Angeles. There are a lot of individuals in between Booth, Connors and Wright and Patrick Marleau, the all-time regular-season games performed chief with 1,779.

But not all that many within the 1,500 membership.

In truth, solely 24 gamers in NHL historical past have performed in 1,500 profession NHL regular-season games. Soon to develop into 25. The odds of a random individual from the world changing into an NHL player who performs in 1,500 profession games? Approximately 1 in 350 million.

Now, these 24, to be 25 gamers have gotten to that time in a quantity of alternative ways. Marleau, for instance, did play in 1,500 games with one franchise – the San Jose Sharks – however he additionally went elsewhere in his profession. Jaromir Jagr, who has performed the fourth-most games in NHL historical past, did so whereas taking part in for 9 totally different groups. NINE.

Others took a totally different strategy.

Legendary Detroit defenseman Niklas Lidstrom holds the file for most games performed with one franchise with out ever taking part in for another, with 1,564 regular-season games. In complete, seven gamers have performed 1,500 games for one franchise, together with Marleau and Lidstrom. The most up-to-date to take action is the one lively player on that record – Alex Ovechkin. Until tomorrow, that’s.

So. What are the chances that a random individual on the earth wouldn’t solely make the NHL, not solely play in 1,500 profession NHL games and likewise achieve this with one crew?

Greater than 1 in a billion.

What if we additionally wished to find the chances of that player being from Slovenia, a nation that has produced precisely two NHL gamers.

You most likely get the gist.

When the LA Kings hit the ice tomorrow night at Crypto.com Arena, Anze Kopitar will participate in his 1,five hundredth NHL regular-season recreation.

What’s been humorous to me via the second half of his ultimate NHL season is the shortage of consciousness of simply how rare a player taking part in 1,500 regular-season games is. There is a ton of protection of Kopitar’s ultimate season and his pursuit of Marcel Dionne’s all-time franchise file for factors as a member of the Kings group. And rightfully so. That’s a historic honor, when he will get there. But assume of it this fashion. There are 32 franchises and Kopitar will develop into simply the twenty fifth player to achieve 1,500 games. It’s really rarer to play in 1,500 regular-season games than it’s to steer a franchise in scoring, which is fairly unbelievable to consider.

“Yeah, it’s crazy, 1,500, I know I’m coming up on 700, I feel like that’s a lot, but you think about 1,500 and that’s a long ways to go,” ahead Adrian Kempe stated. “I’ve said this so many times, but how tremendous he is as a player, as a linemate as well, he’s still doing it at 38, it’s really impressive to be out there to still see what he can do.”

You get to a level the place you simply begin to run out of issues to say.

But one factor that I believe it simple to focus on is that it is not by chance. You can take a look at the maths and break it down as I did above. You can say effectively, somebody out of that pool of individuals has to hit these marks, if that is what the numbers say. But there’s a motive it is Kopitar who received to that time, particularly on the finish of his profession. The work he places in to organize, preserve and recuperate each day, to play later in his profession, is one which teammates have observed.

“We’re lucky, we get to see him every day, you see how he treats his body, the recovery he does, his work ethic, what he puts in his body,” defenseman Mikey Anderson stated of Kopitar. “It’s impressive to play that many games, but with one team he’s done it and he’s played at a high level for pretty much 1,500 of them. Yeah, it’s really impressive. We’re lucky to get to learn from him, to get to have him here, to have him be a part of our life.”

It additionally doesn’t come with out sacrifice.

Along the way in which, Kopitar has performed via accidents, together with a few right here during the last two seasons, actually. That’s the sort of factor that gamers discover. They see when somebody is giving one hundred pc, even once they haven’t got one hundred pc to provide. That’s been the case extra typically than you understand relating to Kopitar. A giant half of taking part in as many games as he has.

“It just shows you how big of a warrior he is, he’s played through so many injuries, even in the past two years that I’ve played with him, so I couldn’t imagine [how many] throughout his entire career,” defenseman Joel Edmundson stated. “He’s the leader of this organization, everyone looks up to him, it’s just for those small reasons.”

This is sportsmanship 🤝

The @NHLBlackhawks caught round to shake arms with Anze Kopitar in what may very well be his ultimate recreation towards Chicago. pic.twitter.com/0tAg5JMjdJ

—NHL (@NHL) December 7, 2025

That’s simply who Kopitar has been.

He is a man who has gone about his profession within the NHL the proper manner. He’s by no means actually chased particular person accolades on the expense of crew success. That proven fact that he is amassed 1,300 profession factors, taking part in on a crew just like the Kings, who’ve by no means chased offense whereas he is been right here, is much more superb. The matchups he is logged through the years, the exhausting minutes on the penalty kill, make it that rather more spectacular.

It’s for these causes that Kopitar has typically flown below the radar on a nationwide scale. I imply, the 70-point middle taking part in Selke-caliber protection is rarely going to flash all that usually on spotlight reels, particularly when he wins the opening faceoff at 10:30 PM Eastern on most nights. But the extent he is introduced in Los Angeles, through the years, has hardly ever been matched across the league in his time.

His teammates in Los Angeles are blissful that his ultimate season, together with milestones like this, are pushing what he is achieved into the highlight.

“He’s been a guy that is okay staying out of the limelight his entire career, but it means a lot that people are really taking the time to appreciate him as much as we’ve appreciated him his entire career, as long as I’ve been here and I know before that too,” defenseman Brandt Clarke added. “It’s obviously really special, it’s a great milestone for him, he’s just going to play it like another game, because that’s just the kind of person he is, but the fact that he’s kind of closing on all these records and people are actually appreciating him the way he deserves, we like to see that, because that’s what he deserves.”

It is what Kopitar deserves.

And it is not simply for the player he’s, however the person who his teammates have seen through the years as effectively.

The sort of man you need welcoming youthful gamers into your group. The sort of one who takes care of these round him, generally on the expense of himself. That’s the sort of man you need round, for so long as Kopitar has been.

“Obviously he’s an unbelievable player, but he’s almost a better person,” defenseman Jacob Moverare stated. “He’s just such a good person to read on, with everything. Even things like he let me his golf clubs when I needed them. It’s stuff like that, that maybe people don’t care about, but he’s just such an unbelievable person. He’s helped me anything he can.”

When Kopitar hits the ice tomorrow, he’ll be a part of a particularly unique group of gamers and sure individuals as effectively.

Certainly hopeful it is not the final celebration of a Kopitar milestone this season, however relatively the primary of a number of to come back.

The Kings will honor Kopitar in April 2 for his collective legacy, versus a ceremony for every particular person mark. That’s of his selecting, contemplating the significance of every recreation right here and, frankly, the truth that we might probably have three or 4 pre-game ceremonies if not for merging them collectively. Not that it might hassle his teammates, who would probably rejoice him gladly. But his choice was to have one evening to take all of it in.

One evening, for a player who has confirmed that the maths of how rare he’s can be far to tough to calculate. Easier to only name him 1 of 1. Fitting, for quantity 11 in Los Angeles.

Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI through Getty Images