Sean Couturier Deserves Recognition From More Than Just Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers centerman may be noticed by his teammates. However, he’s been criminally underrated around the league, and it’s time for that to end.

Sean Couturier has the respect of his Philadelphia Flyers teammates and coaching staff. They know how important of a piece he is to the team. It’s time the leagues also recognizes him as one of the best two-way centers in the game.

Since Couturier came into the league in 2011, a heavy emphasis was put on his scoring. And when you put up back-to-back 96 points season in juniors, it’s fair to expect offense. He put up a modest 27 points in his rookie season. That’s where the talk about his offensive skillset started, and it rears its head to this day.

Apparently, back-to-back 76 point seasons and 30+ goals don’t mean anything to some people. But Couturier is much more than his offensive game that has flourished the last few seasons. It’s his defensive play that has always been a strength of his. And his ability to seemingly make his teammates better when playing with him.

“Because he might not be as flashy or look as spectacular as some of the other guys, people don’t notice him as much,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said when asked about Couturier. “But I can tell you the people in this room, the people that play with him every day, they notice him.”

And Vigneault is right. Couturier doesn’t necessarily make the flashy plays that end up on highlight reels. And that’s okay. The Flyers have players like Travis Konecny that do that. What Couturier does, however, is something that should be recognized just as much.

Per Corsica Hockey, Couturier ranks 22nd in Corsi for percentage (55.74) among all centers to have played this season. Now take away the players who have played in single-digit games or less than 500 minutes, and that number jumps to 6th. He’s 5th if you don’t include Craig Smith, who is just under 500 minutes, but we’ll count him in this. Look at his relCF% (6.7), and he jumps to fourth. These are all numbers at even strength.

Those are just a few of his numbers from this season alone. To see just how impressive he’s been, we can look at some of the league’s other top two-way centers in Patrice Bergeron and Anze Kopitar. All three are typically in the Selke conversation and for a good reason. But the two mentioned above are usually talked about far more than Couturier is.

Let’s go back to the start of last season to add more context. That gives Couturier a 125 game sample, 103 for Bergeron, and 129 for Kopitar. Couturier ranks second in CF%, first in relCF%, second in GF%, and second in xGF%. It’s not a surprise that Bergeron ranks first in the categories that see Couturier in second.

When comparing just Couturier and Bergeron, there is one crucial thing to note. Couturier typically sees more starts in the defensive zone than Bergeron does. That stat is helped out by ZSR, which is Zone Start Ratio. It is all non-neutral zone starts that are offensive zone starts. Simply put, it’s how often a player starts his shift in the offensive zone.

Bergeron is high on this list at 59.61, while Couturier is further down the list at 45.66. That’s a difference of over 10 percent. Another essential stat to distinguish the situations the two are put in is CF% QoC That is considered the weighted average Corsi of a player’s opponents faced. Bergeron does tend to face slightly easier competition when looking at this stat. His percentage is at 49.96 while Couturier is 50.2. While the numbers are pretty close on this one, it does still show that Couturier is facing slightly higher competition most nights.

Because these two are considered some of the best two-way centers, that means their offensive skills come into play as well. There is a 22 game difference, so that is taken into account a bit. Nevertheless, Couturier has 76 points to Bergeron’s 54 points. Bergeron does have a slight edge in points-per-60 (2.41-2.36). Their P1/60, primary points, is close as well, with Bergeron once again being just ahead with 1.7 compared to Couturier’s 1.65.

To put things simply, Couturier’s offensive and defensive stats are all close in line to Bergeron. So why are the Flyers the only ones who seem to know how much Couturier means? Unfortunately, that’s not a question that can be answered right now. The only thing that can be said is that it’s time the league takes notice of what Couturier does night in and night out.