The Philadelphia Flyers will be anticipating the returns of several key players this season. That, along with some development from their younger players, and a clean bill of health for the others, will make them a much better team this year. So much so that a world where some Flyers win awards this year would not be completely unrealistic.
Sean Couturier – Frank J. Selke Trophy
Sean Couturier is one of a few Flyers who missed the entirety of the 2022-23 season, and he missed the majority of the 2021-22 season as well. The longtime Flyer could have returned sometime in April, but the team decided it would be better to hold him out and keep him fresh for this year.
Couturier now heads into 2023-24 after an extremely long layoff – 663 days between his last regular season game and opening night – and it remains to be seen whether or not he can recapture his old form. In his prime, which was not that long ago, the 30 year old was one of the very best defensive forwards in the NHL, culminating in a Selke Trophy win in the 2019-20 season. Couturier had received Selke votes in every full-ish season he’s played in since 2012-13.
Sean Couturier dances past Crosby and scores the OT winner pic.twitter.com/aWj5gqKfxp
— Murph (@2Murphy8) April 22, 2020
With Patrice Bergeron now retired and out of the picture, the window for Couturier to capture the prestigious award once again is now open wider than ever. Obviously, a lot of that depends on the Phoenix, AZ native’s health, but there does not seem to have been any setbacks with him to this point.
However, the Flyers as a whole will need to be better defensively for Couturier to succeed in this quest. The last time he won, the Flyers were the 10th in the league in goals against, and sixth in the league in goals for; the current roster is a very far cry from that. If more veterans depart Philadelphia, it will make it that much harder for Couturier.
Still, 2022-23’s Selke runner-up Anze Kopitar is not getting any younger. That leaves Couturier’s main competition as Kopitar, the New Jersey Devils’ Nico Hischier, and the Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov. A second Selke for Couturier is not completely out of the question.