Imagine being 18-years-old and playing in the NHL. Most kids would dream of this, but Sean Couturier is living his dream.
The Flyers had until after his ninth game played to decide on whether to send him back to the juniors or to keep him up with the big club. Couturier helped make the decision a hard one for the Flyers brain trust.
He was playing valuable minutes on the penalty kill and doing everything the organization had asked of him. But now that Brayden Schenn is up, Couturier’s ice time is down, but not by that much.
The 18-year-old even contributed offensively. He has two goals and two assists for a total of four points in his first seven NHL games. He played on the fourth line and got most of his ice time on the penalty kill. He looked poised no matter what situation he was presented with, even playing against the team’s best players.
Couturier was even out on the ice when the Flyers had a one- or two-goal lead, and less than a minute to play in the game. He is only averaging between 10 and 12 minutes per game. If he can get some more ice time when the teams are playing even strength, he can get even better and contribute even more to the offense.
On the plus side, sending Couturier down would have moved Max Talbot down to the fourth line center and given James van Riemsdyk more ice time. Brayden Schenn would have then centered the third line. JVR has only getting about 12 minutes of ice time per game since Schenn has been called up. He can’t score and live up to the high expectations of the organization if he isn’t on the ice.
However, one of the negatives of sending Couturier back down would have been that Claude Giroux would have been back on the penalty kill and averaging too many minutes per game. The players would have had to get used to playing with a different set of line mates for the third time this season.
Peter Laviolette and the Flyers had a tough decision to make. Thankfully, they made the right one and kept the kid here in the big league.
