When the NHL lists the top rookie scorers for the 2006-07 season, the common reaction to the name often at the top is:
Who?
Anze Kopitar, the Kings’ young Slovenian center, isn’t offended. At age 19, he probably is a longshot to win the Calder Trophy, as is anyone not named Evgeni Malkin. But Kopitar is still having an impressive rookie season, showing signs of being the steal of the 2005 draft, in which he went 11th overall to the Kings.
Kopitar was raised in Jesenice, when Slovenia was considered part of Yugoslavia. In the early 1990s, Yugoslav troops entered Slovenia to quash the republic’s attempt at independence, but by 1992, when Kopitar was 5, the United Nations had recognized Slovenia as a separate nation.
“Obviously, we were scared when those things were going on,” Kopitar said at the Pepsi Center last week. “But everything turned out fine.”
Kopitar’s father was a former hockey player and coach, and he built a small rink in the family’s backyard to teach his son to skate. “Hockey was not that big in Slovenia,” Anze said. “There was always soccer and basketball before hockey, but in my hometown the fans were really interested and really nice.”
Between his two seasons of playing junior hockey in Sweden, he was the first European taken in the 2005 draft.
“Back home, I was always playing against older players,” Kopitar said. “I was playing in a men’s league when I was 15. There were really no more steps for me at home, so I had to go somewhere to play juniors, and Sweden was, I guess, the first and only option. I felt really good in Sweden.”
Since joining the Kings, he has been living in Hermosa Beach, and settling in. In Denver last week, he had a goal and an assist in the Kings’ 6-5 victory over the Avalanche and turned some heads.
“I’m just trying to do my best and help my team win,” he said. “In the end, if there’s going to be enough there for me to win the Calder Trophy, I will be more than happy.”
