Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar is the NHL's Lady Byng Trophy winner for the third time. The Professional Hockey Writers Association voted Kopitar as the "player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." The voters chose their top five players. Kopitar won with 856 voting points [https://media.nhl.com/public/news/19074], including 50 first-place votes. Tampa Bay Lightning [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/tampa-bay-lightning] center Brayden Point finished second with 793 points, including 27 first-place votes and 43 second-place votes. Although Vegas Golden Knights [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/vegas-golden-knights] center Jack Eichel had 34 first-place votes and 26 second-place votes, he finished third with 782 voting points. A total of 62 players received at least one vote. The others who received at least one first-place vote are Carolina Hurricanes [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes] defenseman Jaccob Slavin, Montreal Canadiens [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens] captain Nick Suzuki, Colorado Avalanche [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche] defenseman Cale Makar, Minnesota Wild [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/minnesota-wild] goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, Toronto Maple Leafs [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs] right winger Mitch Marner, St. Louis Blues [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/st-louis-blues] defenseman Colton Parayko, Ottawa Senators [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/ottawa-senators] defenseman Jake Sanderson, Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins] captain Sidney Crosby, Washington Capitals [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/washington-capitals] captain Alex Ovechkin and Columbus Blue Jackets [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/columbus-blue-jackets] right winger Kirill Marchenko. Anze Kopitar (Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/565489cc-8b00-40cc-8167-feb763fed9f3.jpeg] Anze Kopitar (Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images) Kopitar is the third NHL player this century to win the Lady Byng Trophy three times, following four-time winner Pavel Datsyuk and three-time winner Martin St-Louis. The 37-year-old center from Slovenia finished second on the Kings [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/los-angeles-kings] in scoring this season, with 67 points in 81 games. He averaged 18:57 of ice time and logged only four penalty minutes, the fewest among 527 skaters who played at least 55 games this season. Kopitar received the Lady Byng Trophy during a family match [https://x.com/NHL/status/1933177474260582559] at the Royal Bled Golf Course in Slovenia with his father, Matjaz, and two children, Jakob and Neza. His wife, Ines, helped with the surprise. The day before, the children made drawings of the trophy by looking at a replica. After finishing a putt on the ninth hole, Jakob and Neza walked up to their dad and handed him the drawings. They then went to get the replica trophy together and handed it off to Kopitar. "You won the award for the nicest NHL player," Neza said. Ines Kopitar and Anze's parents, Mateja and Matjaz, then came to embrace the Lady Byng winner. "I thought it was just going to be a friendly 10 holes of family golf and then a little bit of lunch, so this was a very pleasant surprise when I guess the kids brought it out on the ninth green," Kopitar said. "Hockey is a physical sport, but within those parameters, I think there's obviously room (to be) a gentleman, a good guy," he added. "Having respect toward your peers, toward the officials, just carry yourself in a way to where kids look at you, young kids look at you, what you do on the ice." At 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, the NHL will reveal the winners of the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy in a one-hour award show before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final. Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA%3Aen] and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here [http://eepurl.com/i7OC4I]. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com.
