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Gasper Kopitar

Gasper Kopitar - Head Coach 18U AAA

Former Jr. King  Gašper Kopitar (born 13 August 1992), is a Slovenian former professional ice hockey player who last played with the Manchester Monarchs of the ECHL. He is the younger brother of Anže Kopitar, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League.

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. In 2008, he moved to 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 Hockey Allsvenskan. In December 2013 he contracted with the Ontario Reign of the ECHL. 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 in signing a standard player contract for the 2014–15 season.

On 28 July 2015, Kopitar remained within the Los Angeles Kings ECHL affiliation, signing a one-year contract with the Manchester Monarchs.

Kopitar remained within the Kings ECHL affilates' 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 December 5, 2018.

Gasper Kopitar