Sean Couturier

Sean Gerald Couturier (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).

Couturier was born on December 7, 1992, in Phoenix, Arizona.

His family was Canadian, but lived in the area at the time because his father, Sylvain Couturier, was playing in the now-defunct International Hockey League for the Phoenix Roadrunners.

When Sylvain retired from professional hockey in 2001, the Couturiers relocated to Bathurst, New Brunswick, where Sean attended both French and English-language schools.

Because his father was often busy, serving as a hockey coach and later as the general manager for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Couturier grew close with his paternal grandmother, Denise, who moved in with the family after the death of her husband.

When Couturier was 10 years old, an administrative mistake assigned him to the adolescent "Peewee" minor ice hockey team, rather than the "Atom" team made for players of his age.

Couturier received permission to remain in the Peewee league, and he went on to lead his team in scoring for the year.

Although he also played baseball and basketball in high school at École Secondaire Népisiguit, hockey remained the primary object of Couturier's attention.

When he failed to break into the Quebec midget AAA hockey team, Couturier spent a year with the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League instead.

It was the first time that a 17-year-old led the league in scoring since Sidney Crosby put up 168 points in 62 games for the Rimouski Océanic during the 2004–05 season.

Couturier was honoured for his performance with the Jean Béliveau Trophy, given annually to the top scorer in the QMJHL.

He was also named a second-team QMJHL All-Star.

Playing alongside future National Hockey League (NHL) standouts Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Gormley, Couturier helped lead the Hounds to a league championship in 2008.

After his time with the Hounds, the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) selected Couturier second overall in the 2008 QMJHL Entry Draft, and he began playing junior ice hockey for Drummondville at the age of 15.

He received limited ice time as a rookie in the 2008–09 season, often playing on the lower offensive lines, and coach Guy Boucher told Couturier that, if he wanted to become an elite player, he would need to focus on his defensive abilities as much as his offence and become a two-way player.

In 58 rookie games, Couturier scored nine goals and 22 assists, for a total of 31 points.

Drummondville, meanwhile, finished the regular season at the top of the QMJHL, with 112 points.

Following a modest rookie season, Couturier scored 96 points as a 17-year-old in the 2009–10 season.

They captured their first ever President's Cup, awarded to the champions of the QMJHL tournament, in 2009, and earned an automatic advancement to the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Memorial Cup.

Drummondville was left short-handed during the Memorial Cup when a bout of influenza spread through the team, and were ultimately eliminated in the semifinals with a 3–2 overtime loss to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

The 2009–10 QMJHL season proved to be a break-out for Couturier, who scored 41 goals and 55 assists in 68 games with Drummondville.

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.

Meanwhile, Drummondville advanced to the semifinal round of the 2010 President's Cup, but was eliminated by the Moncton Wildcats in the best-of-seven series.

Couturier missed 10 games at the start of the 2010–11 season after contracting mononucleosis.

Even after he returned to the ice, Couturier continued to experience bouts of fatigue that carried throughout the season and into the beginning of his NHL career.

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).

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.

During the 2015–16 season, he lost time first to a concussion, then to a lower body injury, and finally to a shoulder injury.

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.

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.