VOORHEES, N.J. — Much has been made this week about Sean Couturier’s remarks that he doesn’t like being saddled with the label “shutdown center.”
How much of that is a byproduct of how he was used by Flyers coach Craig Berube? And, was that in itself what prevented the 22-year-old from producing more offensively?
Berube has already stated that regardless of whether Couturier begins almost 51 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone as opposed to the offensive zone, per hockeyreference.com, the team expects more offense from him.
A more recent example of a Flyer who achieved both and drew votes as a Selke Trophy candidate was Mike Richards, who had four consecutive seasons of 23 or more goals, while also going up against the top lines.
In 2008-09, Richards was second in the Selke voting to Pavel Datsyuk with 30 goals and 80 points.
“We don’t want him to be a shutdown player, either,” Hextall said of Couturier. “We want him to be both. We want him to be a 200-foot player. That’s how you win championships, win playoff series, you make the playoffs with 200-foot players.
“Sean Couturier is a good two-way player. Sean Couturier is also 22 years old. Be really careful … do we want more from him? Yeah. Does he want more from himself? Yeah. Is he going to be in more offensive roles as we move forward?
“That’s a coach’s decision, but I suspect he will. Don’t forget — I think Coots had the most breakaways on our team. He did a lot of good things. Did he play where we hoped? Probably not quite. But it’s not like Sean had a disastrous year. When you get a big guy who’s a smart player, he’s gifted offensively, and a shutdown guy, you really have something. We really like Coots.”
In last season’s exit interviews, Hextall told Couturier the club expected more offense, more goals, more points this year.
Couturier finished with a career-high 15 goals but his 37 points were two fewer than last season.
“Am I disappointed in his year?” Hextall asked. “Eh. Could he have had a better year? Probably. But again, he’s 22 years old.”
Hextall also backed up Berube in saying that because of Couturier’s role, he’s going to begin shifts in the defensive zone with a faceoff.
“Starting in the D-zone, if you’re a two-way player, you’re going to start in both zones,” Hextall said. “Claude’s (Giroux) an offensive guy, he’s probably going to start [in the offensive zone] ... you’re looking at a single entity there. Coots is probably our best defensive center, that’s fair to say.
“Offensively, he produced, but not at a high rate, so you’re going to use him a certain amount in the defensive zone.”
Hextall mentioned Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who logged big penalty minutes, may get more defensive faceoff draws next season in Couturier’s place.
“But Coots is probably always going to take a certain amount of defensive draws, depending on the building and everything else, the matchups,” Hextall said.
“There’s a lot more that goes on there than just putting Sean out in the offensive zone. There’s matchups, you’ve gotta put your guys out first on the road ... there’s a lot of little things that go through a coach’s mind, and there’s reasons they do things.”
Translation?
Couturier needs to accept his role as a defensive center and realize, like Richards before him, he’s capable of delivering more offensively.