Leading up to the Flyers’ regular-season opener in Tampa this Thursday, we’ll be taking a deeper look at some players who will be under significant pressure to step up this year as the team attempts to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after a year away. Today: center Sean Couturier.
Anyone who has seen Flyers center Sean Couturier play over his first four NHL seasons knows he’s an elite defensive forward who has the ability to neutralize the league’s most prolific scorers.
Just ask Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin how much he likes going up against Couturier four or five times a year and see what Malkin’s reaction is like.
But those people who only know of Couturier’s defensive prowess probably don’t realize just how much of an impact he's capable of making on the offensive side of the puck.
New head coach Dave Hakstol and general manager Ron Hextall do, and the latter of those two backed up his faith in Couturier with plenty of dollar signs this past summer.
Back in July, Hextall inked the 22-year-old center to a six-year, $26 million contract extension.
The message of that extension was clear: Step up and play a bigger offensive role on the team.
NHL
Yes, Couturier’s defensive acumen is great and all, but, due to their dearth of secondary scoring last season, this Flyers team needs him to dip into the offensive skill set that allowed him to put up back-to-back 96-point seasons with Drummondville of the Quebec Major Junior League and help lead him to being selected seventh overall by the Flyers in the 2011 entry draft.
If you’ve been following these previews, you’ve surely noticed that secondary scoring has been a prevailing theme. That’s because it played such a large role in why the Flyers missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs and hit the golf course early last year.
Despite the facts that Jake Voracek finished tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 81 points and Claude Giroux finished tied for eighth with 73 points, the Flyers as a team finished just 21st in the league with 2.59 goals scored per game last season.
It’s clear the Flyers need more offense behind those guys and Wayne Simmonds, who led the team with 28 goals last season and would have likely eclipsed the 30-goal plateau had he not been injured with a few weeks left in the season.
Let's just put it this way: Hextall and the Flyers did not invest $26 million in a third-line defensive forward.
Hextall and the Flyers invested $26 million a top-six forward who can put pucks in the net and rack up points.
Yes, Couturier's career-high for points in a season is just 39 in 2013-14 when he scored 13 goals and added 26 assists. He posted 15 goals and 22 assists last season for a total of 37 points.
But, seeing as how he's been deployed in a mostly defensive role, Couturier hasn't really been put in a position to excel offensively. He's been the one tasked with shutting down the opposition's best scoring threat from excelling offensively.
That meant Couturier has had to start a lot of shifts in the defensive zone. A lot of them.
Let's take last season, for example.
Among all NHL forwards who played at least 1,000 five-on-five minutes last season, Couturier started his shifts in the offensive zone just 25.5 percent of the time, dead last in the league (h/t Broad Street Hockey).
Still in that same group of forwards, Couturier started his five-on-five shifts in the defensive zone 38.7 percent of the time, the highest percentage in the league (again, h/t Broad Street Hockey).
Not everyone is Alex Ovechkin or Steven Stamkos. It's hard enough to score in the league as is. But, as you may have inferred, it's even harder to score and put up points when you start in your own end of the ice on 38.7 percent of your five-on-five shifts.
But that will all change this season as Couturier moves up the depth chart to the second-line center spot behind Giroux.
With that second-line center spot comes teammates who are more offensive-minded. Simmonds will likely flank Couturier on one wing, and, while the decision is still up in the air, don't be surprised to see Brayden Schenn on his other wing come Thursday night in Tampa.
Those are two players with offensive skill who can help Couturier put points on the board and put pucks in the net.
Couturier will also likely be the centerman on the second power-play unit. That's another opportunity for him to make an offensive impact.
And the Flyers need that offensive impact from him, maybe more than other player on the roster not named Giroux, Voracek or Simmonds.
The organization has made a commitment to Couturier and put its faith in him. Now it's up to him to reward that faith in him by kicking his offensive game up a notch.