Sean Couturier’s absence looms large for the Philadelphia Flyers

Despite the Philadelphia Flyers sitting near the top of the standings with a record of 7-3-2 through 12 games played, the team’s play has been much more concerning than its record would indicate. And a large chunk of it can be traced to the absence of Sean Couturier, who has made his case as the team’s most important player.

Couturier went down with a painful-sounding injury in the second game of the season, forcing head coach Alain Vigneault to jumble line combinations immediately.

Now, several weeks later, the team still doesn’t seem right, as they clearly miss what their do-it-all, Selke Award-winning center brings to the table.

The Philadelphia Flyers don’t look like a contending without Couturier.

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To be fair, the Flyers did play a better game in Friday’s loss to Boston than what we’d recently witnessed, even though they came out on the short end of a 2-1 score. But they’ve been exposed far too often recently when they haven’t been able to lean heavily on Couturier and his all-around game, even though they still possess an objectively good record.

Those who have watched the games closely know that the Flyers have been far from their best this year. And while Couturier’s mere presence might not be enough to “move the needle” completely in the Flyers’ favor, it’s fair to say his impact would have had a net positive impact on his teammates in all facets of the game.

For one thing, the Flyers’ penalty-killing wouldn’t be sitting at 72.1 percent, in the league’s bottom five. Without Couturier, the burden has fallen more to Scott Laughton and Kevin Hayes to keep the opposition off the scoreboard in these situations, and the results haven’t been great.

Both of these players, while above-average in the defensive aspect of the game, aren’t well-equipped to handle the extra ice time and subsequent responsibility that came about from the gaping hole created by Couturier’s injury. Laughton, in particular, has been exposed in the faceoff dot and in critical situations where he wouldn’t otherwise be seeing time. And speaking of faceoffs, the Flyers are a middle-of-the-pack club in that department this year after leading the league last season, indicating that the prowess of “Coots” is sorely missed.

On top of all this, Couturier’s would-be replacement, Morgan Frost, suffered what looks like a season-ending injury in just his second game of the season, further complicating the plan.

The fact that Couturier has only missed two games over the past three seasons and has played in over 93 percent of the team’s games during his first nine seasons in the league is something that we’ve all taken for granted. He simply doesn’t miss much time and has even shown an ability to play through pain that should have kept him out of the lineup. His durability has been a boon to the team, but now they look far less dangerous offensively and far less capable in their own end without him.

Thankfully, they may not have to deal with this situation for much longer, as Couturier might make his return very soon. But, even then, he can’t be expected to be operating at full capacity, at least not for a little while.

This brings us to the elephant in the room: Couturier’s contract. His agent has to look at the team’s struggles without Couturier and be absolutely salivating about his next negotiation with the Flyers.

With one more season to go at $4.33 million, Couturier has been acknowledged for the last several years as having one of the best contracts in the league from a team perspective. The Flyers were smart to lock him in back in 2015, but the time is fast approaching when they are going to have to pay the piper.

Sean Couturier has earned every bit and more of his current contract, and it’s fair to say that his next cap hit will start in the $8 million range and probably go up from there. Unfortunately, it will probably end up being an overpay once he reaches the other side of 30, but that’s the way the cookie is going to crumble for the Flyers unless they go the ultimate cheapskate route and trade Couturier or let him walk, something they are unlikely to do.

Given the way that the team has looked so incomplete without him the last few weeks, it’s become apparent that Couturier is the most important skater on the Flyers, if any doubt still remained. (The debate over whether he’s more important to the team than Carter Hart is something to tackle another day.)

Good record aside, the Flyers have greatly missed what their alternate captain brings to the table. Hopefully, there won’t be too many stretches without him for the foreseeable future, because they need him firing on all cylinders if they hope to take the next step as a team.