In the midst of the ashes and rubble that was the Philadelphia Flyers in the late 2010s, forged the ascension of Sean Couturier, not only in relation to his peers but also within his own fan base.
The final years of the Claude Giroux era brought about a lot of disdain towards the longest tenured captain in franchise history. It was always a battle between player success vs team success with no one coming out the victor.
The younger Couturier became the focal point when Giroux started to lose favour and now the roles might have reversed on the former Selke winner as he attempts to make his comeback from successive back surgeries.
The 8th overall selection from the 2011 NHL Entry Draft – that originally belonged to the Columbus Blue Jackets – was used on the tall and lanky Couturier, who was one year removed from being a potential top pick. His bout with mononucleosis took a hit on his draft stock but it turned out to be a boon for Paul Holmgren and the Flyers.
For the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the QMJHL, Couturier went from scoring 31 points in 58 games in his rookie year to scoring 41 goals and 96 points in 68 games the following year. Even while dealing with mononucleosis and the fatigue that comes with it upon his return, he matched his 96 point tally in 10 less games in his draft season. He never had to return to junior hockey as the Flyers stapled his name into the opening night lineup ahead of the commencement of the 2011-12 season.
It’s been a tale of two careers for the now-30-year-old as his first 6 seasons yielded totals of 70 goals and 191 points in 416 games. The following 5 is when he truly shined and flexed his first-round muscles with 110 goals and 269 points in 305 games, including back to back 30+ goal and 76 point seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19. In that time he developed into one of the best two-way centres in the NHL and was awarded with the Selke Trophy in 2020 after being the runner-up in 2018.
You take out his shortened 2021-22 season and Couturier was a near point per game producer with 252 points in 276 games between 2017-18 and 2020-21. He started off the 2021-22 campaign with 12 points in his first 10 games but then played through a back ailment and ended his shortened season with 1 goal and 5 points in his final 19 games.
He underwent back surgery and was ruled out for the remainder of the season but then suffered a setback on the same exact spot right before training camp, which then ruled him out for the entire 2022-23 season.
Part of why people have turned their backs on the once-thought-to-be 1C is his 8-year contract he signed before the 2021-22 season with an AAV of $7.75 million that kicked in last year. The worry being that the cap-strapped Flyers would be stuck with an injury riddled centre for years to come with an “egregiously high” cap hit. Suffering a setback on the same exact spot that kept him out the year before wasn’t helping his case either.
There was a sliver of a chance that he could’ve returned at the end of the 2022-23 season and for some that was seen as a massive red flag, while others saw it as an opportunity for him to get his feet slightly wet while helping him mentally. The Flyers played it safe and ruled him out for precautionary measures but the veteran was rightfully and “selfishly” upset as John Tortorella pointed out – and loved to see.
On the bright side, all that means is that Couturier is not only ready to play on opening night ahead of the 2023-24 season, but he’s itching and raring to get out there. The competitive drive will help not only him but also the younger players on the team and he’s already been playing the mentor role as he took Noah Cates under his wing last year whenever possible.
Cates is coming off a very successful rookie campaign that saw him play in all 82 games, averaged the 8th most ice-time on the team and 3rd amongst forwards, played in all situations, and earned the trust and admiration of his fiery head coach. He received Selke and Calder nominations playing for – at times – deplorable Flyers team. He had 38 points on the season with 21 of them coming in his final 36 games, stationed with wingers like Joel Farabee and Travis Konecny.
The Flyers sought after developing a mini-Couturier and seemingly succeeded as they now have two responsible two-way centres at very different points in their careers. They should form a formidable duo on the penalty kill, whether together or separated, and can be trusted upon to be out there in the final minutes of the game while protecting a lead.
Will the injury scare be a real possibility? Absolutely. The nature of the sport and the nature of his injury itself should have anyone worried, however is there an alternative route?
Couturier was a top-20 ranked NHL centre as voted by the NHL Network on 2 separate occasions within a 3-year span and was “controversially” – in accordance to Flyers fans – held out in 2019 after coming off a season where he scored 33 goals and 76 points. He was ranked 18th ahead of the 2018-19 season, was held off the list ahead of the 2019-20 season, and then ranked 18th again ahead of the 2020-21 season.
Going back to his past 5 seasons, he averaged 20:53 TOI, had a shooting percentage of 13.2%, had 181 takeaways to 152 giveaways, delivered 230 hits, blocked 170 shots, and had a face-off winning percentage of 56.5%. Even to start his career, he averaged 17:33 TOI, had 234 takeaways to 177 giveaways, delivered 321 hits, blocked 200 shots, and had a face-off winning percentage of 48.9% in his first 6 years. It was only a matter of time until both offense and defense coalesced to form the perfect 1C for the Philadelphia Flyers.
He has played over 150 shorthanded minutes 5 times in his career, including 208 minutes in his rookie year. He has usurped 190 on 4 separate occasions and has 5 shorthanded goals and 3 shorthanded assists in 11 years. Couturier has also been a focal point on the man advantage since 2014-15, surpassing 115 minutes in each season between 2014-15 and 2020-21, including 260.7 in 2017-18 and 247.6 in 2018-19. He was well on his way to another 200+ season in 2019-20 before the COVID pause.
He has also shown off in the playoffs as well, playing a pivotal role in shutting down Evgeni Malkin in the first round of the 2012 playoffs, while also scoring a hat-trick in Game 2 as a rookie. He scored 5 goals and 9 points in the first round of the 2018 playoffs – also against Pittsburgh – and almost pulled off the miraculous comeback on his own after scoring the game winning goal in Game 5 to keep the series alive and then scoring 3 goals and 5 points in Game 6 on a torn MCL. He also added 9 points in 15 games during the playoff bubble in 2020.
The Flyers now have a nice mix of veterans and young players with Sean Couturier joining Cam Atkinson, Travis Konecny, and Scott Laughton up front with the resurgence of Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, and Noah Cates, and hopefully a bounce back from Joel Farabee.
Their all-situation “monster” is back and ready to go. The power play gets an immediate boost, the penalty kill becomes instantly better, the Flyers will actually win some face-offs for a change, will have a better 3-on-3 line to start overtime, and have a shot in the shootouts.
It also helps that he will mesh well with his head coach, and he’s the exact type of player that Tortorella fancies.
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