Philadelphia Flyers captain Sean Couturier finished the 2024-25 season on a high note despite having a topsy-turvy first half of the season, which was partially due to his relationship with former head coach John Tortorella.
The mild-mannered veteran doesn’t speak out too often but when he does, it holds reverence. The newly minted captain for the Flyers dealt with Tortorella’s swift justice almost instantly and was never able to get out of his doghouse until he was let go late in the 2024-25 season.
Tortorella certainly had his methods to try and get players motivated and sometimes they weren’t popular decisions. He often scratched players, benched players, or demoted them in the lineup for a game or two to perhaps get a positive response.
With Couturier, the decision was questionable at best considering the importance of his role on and off the ice. He wasn’t scoring nor was he producing points but that could have been said about anyone not named Travis Konecny last year.
There were no egregious errors or mistakes in his defensive game or back-checking that you could point to as a reason why he was benched or scratched, like we’ve seen in the past with players like Joel Farabee or even Matvei Michkov.
Even the point drought he endured, as long as it was, matched some of the lengthy slumps we’ve seen from players like Farabee, Morgan Frost, and others who continued to play in high leverage roles down the stretch of the 2023-24 season.
However, I think what made the decision a little more questionable was the fact that if the Flyers were trying to make the postseason last year, why was their top two-way centre relegated to a bottom-6 role for as long as he was?
It was a decision the Flyers had to endure and while it didn’t sit well in the locker room after the fact, the page was turned over as we approached the 2024-25 campaign. Unfortunately it was the same story as Couturier’s ice-time wavered from games where he played 24 minutes a night to a measly 9:52.
Despite the ups and downs, he averaged over 18 minutes of ice-time in his first 34 games. Then it dropped down to 14 minutes a game in the next 25 games before seeing 19:37 ATOI in the final 20 games, which included over 20 minutes a night once Brad Shaw took over as interim.
At the end of the 2023-24 season it came out that both Couturier and Tortorella weren’t on the same page and it was backed up once again by the Flyers captain during their end of season presser.
“I just felt at times I was getting pushed aside. I didn’t know the reason or maybe wouldn’t agree with the explanations or whatever that was given to me but whoever the coach is, doesn’t matter, you just need to be all-in together.”
When asked by a reporter on what it felt like when he started to feel phased out and seeing his role diminish:
“If you look at the minutes and stuff, I think it tells you how I was kind of pushed aside but that’s what I mean, it is what it is, I didn’t agree with how i was being pushed aside, I was just trying not to be a distraction and keep my mouth shut and put in the extra effort and get back to where I should be.”
By no means was Couturier breaking down the door offensively to a point where he should’ve been put on a pedestal, but he was their best two-way player for most of the season alongside Noah Cates and his diminished role had no real rhyme or reason behind it.
When he played alongside Konecny and Michkov he was able to hold his own and dictate possession and play with his hockey senses. He wasn’t as fast as them or as skilled as them but his hockey IQ was able to match up and allowed him to succeed alongside his linemates.
He finished the year with 21 points in his final 28 games, won 55.7% of his draws, was a +4, and chipped in a few times on the power play. In totality, his 45 points were third on the team ahead of the likes of Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster.
He might never recapture the same essence from 2017-18 and 2018-19 but Couturier can still provide 50-55 points in any given season as a top-6 centre until the Flyers finally find top-flight centres through the open market or the draft.
Shaw was able to unleash the veteran, which allowed him to show there’s still a lot left in the tank. With the salary cap rising from $88.5 million in 2023-24 to a projected $113.5 million in 2027-28, Couturier’s contract won’t be too much of a hindrance compared to when the salary cap was completely stagnant.
Yes, he is under contract for the next 5 seasons at $7.775 million but if it was manageable under a salary cap of $88.5 million, it will be more than okay to hold onto in 2025-26 and a few years beyond. Buying him out wouldn’t make much sense at the moment since the Flyers don’t need to worry too much about their cap situation for next season or two.
Revisit things down the road if need be since the only big-time contract coming up will be Michkov in 2027-28 – when and if the cap is at $113.5 million. It doesn’t sound like Cam York will be breaking the bank this summer, Cates might be looking at one-year deal, and Jamie Drysdale is an RFA in 2026-27.
Couturier should be a main fixture heading into the 2025-26 season and if he can come back firing at the same pace he finished the year with, we should all be in good hands with the captain finally shaking off his injuries.
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