2 RANGZZ

Wheels on the ice, wheels off the ice. And when you look like he does, that's no small feat:

Anze Kopitar, C, Los Angeles



I believe in building from the middle out. I believe that winning teams share an uncanny commonality of leaning on big horses in said middle to not just take on major workloads, but thrive with them.

That's exactly what I'm getting in Kopitar. Playing for one of the best territorial teams in the NHL, Kopitar is arguably the best player on a star-studded roster, driving a bus stacked with talent. And he checks all the boxes that I think are important in this format: he won't be 26 until August, which is a perfect age for this format. He's an established elite talent who should remain elite throughout the window, because of his physical presence, his skillset and his extremely elevated hockey IQ. He plays a complete 200 foot game, which is what I craved from my first center drafted. He's just as apt to play a big man's game as he is a finesse game. His possession stats are outstanding - again, always near the top of LA's individual Corsi ratings - but he also puts up the type of raw counting numbers that cannot be discounted, no matter how you slice things. For all intents and purposes, he's a ppg center playing against top competition.

Yeah, there's my horse down the middle.

Kopitar is a legit franchise player in any format, and I'm happy to add him to my team. Since I couldn't take Joe Sakic, I'm happy I could take the next best thing when it comes to Balkan pivots. Sorry, Tony Hrkac.