Gašper Kopitar (born 13 August 1992), is a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player who last played with the

Manchester Monarchs Manchester Monarchs may refer to: *Manchester Monarchs (AHL) (2001–2015) *Manchester Monarchs (ECHL) The Manchester Monarchs were a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL which began play in the 2015–16 season. Based in Manchester, New ...

of the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

. He is the younger brother of Anže Kopitar, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Kings of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

Playing career

Kopitar was born in Jesenice, to Matjaž and Mateja Kopitar. In his youth, Kopitar played for the youth team of his hometown,

HK Acroni Jesenice Hokejski klub Acroni Jesenice ( en, Acroni Jesenice Hockey Club), commonly referred to as HK Acroni Jesenice or simply Jesenice, was a Slovenian ice hockey team from Jesenice that last played in the Austrian Erste Bank Hockey League and the Slov ...

. In 2008, he moved to the USA and played the rest of his junior years there. On 25 April 2012, he began his senior career when he signed a contract in Europe with Swedish club Mora IK of the HockeyAllsvenskan. In December 2013 he signed a contract with the Ontario Reign of the

. Kopitar scored his first goal with the Reign on 5 January 2014 against the San Francisco Bulls, winning the game 3-2 in overtime. On 1 October 2014, Kopitar agreed to return to the Reign, signing a standard player contract for the 2014–15 season. On 28 July 2015, Kopitar remained within the Los Angeles Kings' ECHL affiliate, signing a one-year contract with the

. Kopitar remained within the Kings' ECHL affiliates through parts of six seasons. Suffering from prolonged injury, which ruled him out of the entire 2017–18 season, Kopitar returned to play in 7 games in the following 2018–19 season before opting to end his professional career and announce his immediate retirement on 5 December 2018.

International play

Kopitar played in his first senior tournament for his country in 2013, when he participated in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which Slovenia won.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1992 births Living people Des Moines Buccaneers players Ethnic Slovene people Manchester Monarchs (ECHL) players Mora IK players Ontario Reign (ECHL) players Portland Winterhawks players Slovenian ice hockey left wingers Sportspeople from Jesenice, Jesenice Slovenian expatriate ice hockey people Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Slovenian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden {{Slovenia-icehockey-bio-stub