Undrafted Slovenia-born, 4th year center Gaspar Kopitar(13) obviously enjoyed his time with Manchester Monarchs last season enough to re-sign and stay on.
The 6′ 194 lbs. forward had 9 goals and a career high 24 assists and 33 points with a +12 rating and 116 shots on net in 57 ECHL games.
Taking a bit of an odd route to start he had two short runs for Portland Winterhawks of the WHL before leaving and taking a bit of a step back to join American junior hockey USHL Des Moines Buccaneers, where he stayed for the next two years before turning pro.
His first foray into pro hockey was signing with Mora IK to play in Sweden’s tier 2 league Allsvenskan.
He stuck with them for a season but after 13 games into his 2nd run split to North America inking with Ontario Reign.
It would be surprising to see the 24-year old stick around for too much longer in the lower league before splitting back to Europe in search of a little higher level of hockey and better paycheck.
He is also Los Angeles Kings‘ Anze Kopitar‘s younger brother by 5 years.