Although Sean Couturier was bestowed the honour of captaining the Philadelphia Flyers in the middle of his comeback after nearly 2 years away from game action, it looks like the veteran has finally turned a corner with his offense, playing his part in their recent 6-3-1 surge over the last 10 games.
After coming into his own between 2017-18 and 2020-21, Couturier is looking to get back to his Selke Trophy-winning ways as the Flyers desperately need help down the middle. After notching 104 goals and 252 points in a 276-game stretch, he has just 23 goals and 67 points in his last 126 games, but also consider he missed nearly two years due to nagging injuries.
This year represented Couturier’s 13th season in the NHL after being drafted in the first round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He started with the club immediately with his rookie season forever being remembered for his playoff hat-trick against Pittsburgh and his ability to get under Evgeni Malkin’s skin with his defensive efforts.
The offensive game never rounded to form until 2017-18 after posting just 70 goals and 191 points in the previous 6 seasons. However, after demanding more ice-time and a better role from Dave Hakstol, Couturier delivered with a 31-goal and 76-point campaign in 2017-18.
He rebounded with a 33-goal and 76-point season the following year and played a pivotal role in their rejuvenating 2019-20 run before COVID-19 ravaged the league. While 2020-21 was a year to forget for most, Couturier had 41 points in 45 games and had essentially become one of the Flyers’ preferred go-to options on both ends of the ice.
Couturier then started off the 2021-22 season with 12 points in his first 10 games but then slumped to the tune of just 1 goal and 5 points in his final 19 contests before bowing out of the season with a back injury in the middle of December. He underwent successful surgery and was well on his way to returning to the lineup in 2022-23 with John Tortorella taking over behind the bench.
Unfortunately he suffered a setback in his rehab with the season right around the corner and was forced out of the entire 2022-23 season. Although he tried to make a comeback, the Flyers decided to shut him down with the season being lost and no need for him to put himself in a position to re-injure himself with nothing to play for.
That set the stage for 2023-24, where looked fantastic to start the season and almost looked like he never missed a beat, despite being out of action since December of 2021. He collected 10 goals and 30 points in the first 41 games of the season and averaged 19:59 TOI to go along with a +12, 115 shots on goal, and a fantastic faceoff winning percentage.
Things took a steep fall off a cliff after that as he registered just 1 goal and 8 points in his final 33 games. Mixed in was an atrocious -22, his ATOI dropped nearly 5 minutes, and he was made a healthy scratch a few times despite having the “C” embroidered on his jersey.
Heading into his captaincy appointment, he had 1 goal and 3 points in 9 games, was -5, and averaged 18:36 TOI. After that he accumulated 3 assists, a minus-16 rating, and 13:44 TOI in his next 19 games, which included 6 games where his ice-time dipped below 12 minutes.
He suffered through a few nicks and bruises along the way as he was forced out of his first game as captain with a wrist injury and he suffered an early first period injury against the New York Islanders after finally being promoted back up the lineup in April.
Tortorella doesn’t deviate from his methods and he is generally consistent across the board. If you’re not playing up to the mark, you will be benched and/or made a healthy scratch and that has occurred to many players like Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, Morgan Frost, Kevin Hayes, and many more.
However, what became strange was Couturier’s usage once he returned to the lineup and with the Flyers desperately needing an offensive boost with their playoff picture looking bleak. While Couturier wasn’t putting up good numbers, he still represented as a better option than most players on the team and the offense suffered as a result.
It was anyone’s guess how that would translate into the 2024-25 season but it didn’t look promising to start as Couturier was once again relegated to bottom-6 duties. He had just 1 assist in the first 7 games of the new campaign and averaged 14:28 TOI, including a season-low 9:52 against the Edmonton Oilers.
With Jett Luchanko cracking the opening night roster, the Flyers opted to give him power play time at the behest of Couturier, so he was essentially just playing penalty kill and defensive duties on even-strength.
Since then it’s been a different story as the captain has collected 6 goals and 13 points in the last 17 games, he holds a plus-3 rating, all points have come through even-strength hockey, and most importantly his ATOI has jumped to 19:50. In fact, he has seen over 20 minutes of ice-time 8 times and over 22 minutes on 3 separate occasions, including a season-high 24:21 against Florida.
The catalyst seemed to be his first-line promotion alongside Matvei Michkov and Konecny, where he scored a hat-trick and added 2 assists in a crazy 7-5 win over the Minnesota Wild.
He was recently riding a 3-game goal-streak, which was encapsulated by his overtime winner in last Wednesday night’s victory over the Nashville Predators. Couturier not only won the game for the Flyers but he provided the primary assist on Frost’s game-tying goal with just 11.4 seconds remaining to force overtime.
Couturier is also doing all the other things on the ice that we took for granted during his hiatus as he has won 57.3% of his draws, owns a team forward-high 52.4% Corsi, and is 2nd among forwards in Fenwick at 53% as well (Travis Konecny).
He was also third in puck battle wins per game as of November 26th, per Sportlogiq.
While he may never reach the same heights that we witnessed in 2017-18 and 2018-19, Couturier playing over 19 minutes a game, chipping in offensively, winning a vast majority of his draws, and helping the penalty kill remain in the top-3 in the league’s rankings are well within reach.
Tortorella has seemingly understood the importance of Couturier’s game and his ice-time, role, and impact have been off the charts in recent weeks. The Flyers are also very thin down the middle with Frost, Ryan Poehling, and Noah Cates rounding out their forward lines, it’s even more paramount that Couturier doesn’t slow down any time soon.
He’s only in his third year of an 8-year contract with a cap hit of $7.75 million, which makes his contract nearly immovable. However, it feels like he’s turned back the clock recently and that’s about as good as it gets with someone who many thought would never come back the same after missing almost 2 full years due to a back injury.
13 points in his last 18 games is just a start, but Couturier is playing with a different kind of swagger than we’ve seen before and that could only bode well for a team in need of offensive support.
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