Recently, Sean Couturier shared some thoughts about former Flyers head coach John Tortorella. In his exit interview following the season, he shared how he felt "pushed aside" at times by the coach. His feelings can be validated by the fact that, as a 13-year veteran, the longest current tenured athlete in Philadelphia, and as team captain, he was only registering 13 minutes of ice time, or less, at various stretches for no apparent reason. This also came with various random benchings.
Couturier, understandably, felt a certain way about this. He wants to remain a Flyer and still feels that at 32 years old, he has a lot left to give to the organization.
Yes, he's struggled with some injuries over the last few years. Yes, he's slowed down, but he was never a fast guy to begin with. His offensive numbers have declined, but he also didn't have a lot of opportunities, being relegated to a role as a third-line winger instead of his natural position as center. He could be another casualty of a coach trying to smash someone into a system that didn't fit.
So while Couturier has never been a major scoring threat, he's had his uses on this team. He's been the best guy in the faceoff circle this team has had over the last decade. He is consistently someone who would battle in the corners, defend a teammate, and lead by example. While he is not what he was 10 years ago (who among us is?), he is not washed up yet. Instead, the Flyers should look at a Metro Division rival and see how to best utilize Couturier.
Look to Carolina
Thirteen years ago, my wife and I moved to North Carolina. During that time, I've seen a lot of Carolina Hurricanes games. You want an example of who Couturier can be? Look no further than Carolina's Jordan Staal.
Staal is 36 and has two years left on his contract. As of right now, he has no intentions of retiring. By the time his contract is up, he could be the team's all-time leader in games played (including when they were in Hartford). The captain of the Canes scored 13 goals this year with 23 assists. Since arriving in Raleigh, he's scored 20 goals just one time and has never had more than 50 points, although he's topped 40 points four times in his 13 seasons there.
He also has a 56.1 percent rate of winning faceoffs since playing for the Hurricanes. And even at 36 years old, he is still averaging well over 15 minutes of ice time per game, missing only five games this year and only three total games in the previous two seasons.
Couturier is a better scorer, overall, than Staal. He has 206 goals in 13 seasons compared to Staal's 298 in 19. His points are 543 compared to Staal's 615. However, their skill set is very similar.
Staal is not fast, but is right at the heart of the play. He's not big, but he will fight to defend a teammate when called for, but is disciplined enough not to take reckless penalties. As stated before, he is a beast in the faceoff circle. He has been a great mentor to many of the young players on the Hurricanes, is popular with the coaching staff and the fans, and beloved by his teammates. He is a fixture in Raleigh. As team captain, Staal is still a top-six center on a team with several younger stars, such as Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov.
If you take everything in that last paragraph, you could copy and paste Couturier's name in all of those places. Staal is well regarded and treated as such. The Flyers under Tortorella, sadly, have misused him, casting him in lesser roles or placing him in opportunities not suited for his skill set.
Will Couturier ever win another Selke Trophy? Who knows? Maybe under the right circumstances, maybe with the right head coach to guide him, and with a better Flyers team around him, he could bounce back.
Couturier's season still shows he has a lot of hockey left in him as well. He had 41 points with 15 goals, both are the highest totals he's had since before the COVID pandemic. Maybe putting him back on one of the top lines could unlock his skill set again instead of relegating him to bottom-line duty with a handful of minutes.
If the next head coach uses Couturier in the same way that the Hurricanes use Staal, you might see a resurgence in him. That could also lead to a resurgence in the team in the same way.