Sean Couturier
Sean Gerald Couturier is an American-born Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a centre and captain for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League. The Flyers selected him in the first round, eighth overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
Couturier was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where his father was playing hockey at the time, but moved to Bathurst, New Brunswick after his father's retirement. He played minor ice hockey there for several years, but spent a year in the Saskatchewan AAA league after a failed tryout for the Quebec AAA roster. After he won a league championship with Saskatchewan, Couturier was drafted second overall by the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Following a modest rookie season, Couturier scored 96 points as a 17-year-old in the 2009–10 season. Despite a battle with mononucleosis, he repeated that point number again in the 2010–11 season. During his junior ice hockey career, Couturier also began representing Canada at a number of international tournaments, including the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, and the IIHF World Junior Championship.
After signing with the Flyers in 2011, Couturier joined the team for the 2011–12 NHL season. His contract stipulated that Couturier would play with the Flyers for a 10-game "trial period", during which he impressed enough to remain on the roster for the entire season. He struggled offensively during his first few seasons in the NHL, but found his rhythm in 2013, when he was placed on an offensive line alongside Steve Downie. Seeing consistent production from Couturier on a defensively-minded line in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons, the Flyers signed him to a six-year contract extension in July 2015. He continued to skate for Canada at international tournaments even after joining the Flyers, with three appearances at the Ice Hockey World Championships, as well as a showing at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Couturier's next few NHL seasons were hindered by injury. During the 2015–16 season, he lost time first to a concussion, then to a lower body injury, and finally to a shoulder injury. In November 2016, he sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee during a game against the Florida Panthers, and missed over a month of the season. MCL injuries would continue to affect Couturier, who tore the ligament during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs and injured it again shortly before the 2018–19 season. Despite his injuries, Couturier steadily improved as a two-way player: he won his first Gene Hart Memorial Award in 2018, his first Bobby Clarke Trophy in 2019, and he was the 2020 recipient of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, given to the top defensive forward in the NHL.
Early life
Couturier was born on December 7, 1992, in Phoenix, Arizona. His family was Canadian, but lived in the area at the time because his father, Sylvain Couturier, was playing in the now-defunct International Hockey League for the Phoenix Roadrunners. When Sylvain retired from professional hockey in 2001, the Couturiers relocated to Bathurst, New Brunswick, where Sean attended both French and English-language schools. Because his father was often busy, serving as a hockey coach and later as the general manager for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Couturier grew close with his paternal grandmother, Denise, who moved in with the family after the death of her husband.When Couturier was 10 years old, an administrative mistake assigned him to the adolescent "Peewee" minor ice hockey team, rather than the "Atom" team made for players of his age. Couturier received permission to remain in the Peewee league, and he went on to lead his team in scoring for the year. Although he also played baseball and basketball in high school at École Secondaire Népisiguit, hockey remained the primary object of Couturier's attention. When he failed to break into the Quebec midget AAA hockey team, Couturier spent a year with the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League instead. Playing alongside future National Hockey League standouts Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Gormley, Couturier helped lead the Hounds to a league championship in 2008.
Playing career
Amateur
After his time with the Hounds, the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League selected Couturier second overall in the 2008 QMJHL Entry Draft, and he began playing junior ice hockey for Drummondville at the age of 15. He received limited ice time as a rookie in the 2008–09 season, often playing on the lower offensive lines, and coach Guy Boucher told Couturier that, if he wanted to become an elite player, he would need to focus on his defensive abilities as much as his offence and become a two-way player. In 58 rookie games, Couturier scored nine goals and 22 assists, for a total of 31 points. Drummondville, meanwhile, finished the regular season at the top of the QMJHL, with 112 points. They captured their first ever President's Cup, awarded to the champions of the QMJHL tournament, in 2009, and earned an automatic advancement to the Canadian Hockey League Memorial Cup. Drummondville was left short-handed during the Memorial Cup when a bout of influenza spread through the team, and were ultimately eliminated in the semifinals with a 3–2 overtime loss to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.The 2009–10 QMJHL season proved to be a break-out for Couturier, who scored 41 goals and 55 assists in 68 games with Drummondville. It was the first time that a 17-year-old led the league in scoring since Sidney Crosby put up 168 points in 62 games for the Rimouski Océanic during the 2004–05 season. Couturier was honoured for his performance with the Jean Béliveau Trophy, given annually to the top scorer in the QMJHL. He was also named a second-team QMJHL All-Star. Meanwhile, Drummondville advanced to the semifinal round of the 2010 President's Cup, but was eliminated by the Moncton Wildcats in the best-of-seven series.
Couturier missed 10 games at the start of the 2010–11 season after contracting mononucleosis. Even after he returned to the ice, Couturier continued to experience bouts of fatigue that carried throughout the season and into the beginning of his NHL career. He ultimately pushed through his delayed season start, putting up 20 goals in the final 21 regular season games to tie his previous season points number. Drummondville went on to sweep the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in the first round of the 2011 President's Cup playoffs, with Couturier scoring three goals and eight points in the series. Although the Gatineau Olympiques took the second round in six games, Couturier scored an additional three goals in that series. His six total playoff goals were the highest on the team, and he was tied for first in playoff points with 11. At the end of the season, the QMJHL awarded Couturier with both the Michael Bossy Trophy, given to the top prospect in the league, and the Michel Brière Memorial Trophy, given to the league's MVP. He was also named a QMJHL First-Team All-Star.
Philadelphia Flyers
2011–2014
Going into the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, the NHL Central Scouting Bureau ranked Couturier the sixth-highest prospect among all eligible North American skaters. The Philadelphia Flyers ultimately selected him eighth overall in the draft, using an extra pick that they had gained in a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets. That September, Couturier signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Flyers, with a cap hit of $1.375 million per season. As part of the rules of his contract, Couturier was allowed to play for the first 10 games of the Flyers season, after which the team would need to either move another player off of the 50-man roster or send Couturier back down to junior hockey. Due to his age, he was not eligible to play in the American Hockey League. Couturier impressed the Flyers at training camp, and after the Montreal Canadiens claimed Blair Betts off of waivers, a position opened on the 50-man roster in case they wanted to keep him through the end of the season.Couturier made his NHL debut on October 6, 2011, alongside fellow rookie Matt Read, in a 2–1 defeat of the Boston Bruins. He scored his first goal with the Flyers on October 19, in the final five minutes of a 7–2 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Couturier's skill on the defensive end emerged during his first few games, with a particular strength on the penalty kill, and he remained on the team even after the 10-game "trial period". That January, Couturier played in the NHL All-Star Game, where he participated in a breakaway challenge during the skills competition. During the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, Couturier was primarily tasked with slowing down Evgeni Malkin in the Flyers' series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. On April 13, 2012, during the second game of the Flyers–Penguins series, Couturier and Claude Giroux both scored hat tricks to take the Flyers to an 8–5 win. Couturier, 19 years old at the time, was the first teenage skater to score a hat trick in the NHL playoffs since Ted Kennedy in 1945. The Flyers ultimately fell to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Semifinals after Giroux was suspended for an illegal headshot. Couturier finished his rookie season with 27 points in 77 regular season games, and an additional four playoff points.
Couturier's second season with the Flyers was delayed due to the 2012–13 NHL lockout, as owners and the NHL Players' Association disputed over a new collective bargaining agreement. Despite the NHL lockout, the AHL started its 2012–13 season on time, and both Couturier and fellow 2011–12 rookie Brayden Schenn spent time playing for the Adirondack Phantoms, the Flyers' AHL affiliate, as they waited for the NHL to resume play. In 31 games with the Phantoms, Couturier scored 10 goals and 18 assists. The NHL season, when it resumed, was shortened to 48 regular season games. The Flyers stumbled out of the gate, going 2–6 in their first eight matches of the year. They did not recover as the season went on, finishing with a 23–22–3 record and missing the playoffs. Many of the team's struggles were attributed to off-season roster moves, with the loss of free agents Jaromír Jágr and Matt Carle, as well as the absence of a dependable backup goaltender for Ilya Bryzgalov. Couturier, however, experienced a sophomore slump, dropping from third among the team in goals scored to ninth and winning only 43.5 per cent of his face-offs. He dropped to four goals and 15 points in 46 games of the lockout-shortened season.
On July 20, 2013, the Flyers signed Couturier to a two-year, $3.5 million contract extension. The Flyers' head coach, Peter Laviolette, was abruptly fired three games into the 2013–14 NHL season. ESPN speculated that part of the decision behind the firing was a concern that Couturier and Schenn, who were supporting rising star centre Giroux, were not developing as anticipated. Laviolette's replacement, Craig Berube, pushed Giroux and Couturier's ice time throughout the season, telling reporters, "I like to keep the forwards to less than 20 minutes in a game as a rule, but I've always made exceptions for Giroux and Couturier." When the Flyers acquired Steve Downie from the Colorado Avalanche in the fall, he was placed on the third line to wing Couturier and Read. Couturier saw an almost immediate improvement after being paired with Downie; the line scored a combined 25 points in a 10-game span, and Couturier told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Downie was "a big part of the success of our line". By the end of the season, Couturier had reached a career-high 39 points, including 13 goals. The Flyers appeared in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs, but were eliminated by the New York Rangers in the first round.