Sean Couturier

Sean Couturier
Couturier with the Philadelphia Flyers during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs
Born	(1992-12-07) December 7, 1992 (age 31) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)
Weight	211 lb (96 kg; 15 st 1 lb)
Position	Centre
Shoots	Left
NHL team	Philadelphia Flyers
National team	Canada
NHL draft	8th overall, 2011 Philadelphia Flyers
Playing career	2011–present

Sean Gerald Couturier (/kuːˈtʊərieɪ/ koo-TOO-ree-ay;^[1] born December 7, 1992) is an American-born Canadian professional ice hockey player and captain of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Flyers selected him in the first round, eighth overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

Couturier was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where his father was playing hockey at the time, but moved to Bathurst, New Brunswick after his father's retirement. He played minor ice hockey there for several years, but spent a year in the Saskatchewan AAA league after a failed tryout for the Quebec AAA roster. After he won a league championship with Saskatchewan, Couturier was drafted second overall by the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Following a modest rookie season, Couturier scored 96 points as a 17-year-old in the 2009–10 season. Despite a battle with mononucleosis, he repeated that point number again in the 2010–11 season. During his junior ice hockey career, Couturier also began representing Canada at a number of international tournaments, including the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, and the IIHF World Junior Championship.

After signing with the Flyers in 2011, Couturier joined the team for the 2011–12 NHL season. His contract stipulated that Couturier would play with the Flyers for a 10-game "trial period", during which he impressed enough to remain on the roster for the entire season. He struggled offensively during his first few seasons in the NHL, but found his rhythm in 2013, when he was placed on an offensive line alongside Steve Downie. Seeing consistent production from Couturier on a defensively-minded line in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons, the Flyers signed him to a six-year contract extension in July 2015. He continued to skate for Canada at international tournaments even after joining the Flyers, with three appearances at the Ice Hockey World Championships, as well as a showing at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Couturier's next few NHL seasons were hindered by injury. During the 2015–16 season, he lost time first to a concussion, then to a lower body injury, and finally to a shoulder injury. In November 2016, he sprained the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee during a game against the Florida Panthers, and missed over a month of the season. MCL injuries would continue to affect Couturier, who tore the ligament during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs and injured it again shortly before the 2018–19 season. Despite his injuries, Couturier steadily improved as a two-way player: he won his first Gene Hart Memorial Award in 2018, his first Bobby Clarke Trophy in 2019, and he was the 2020 recipient of the Frank J. Selke Trophy, given to the top defensive forward in the NHL.