Sean Couturier has shown the makings of a Flyers captain for years, his old teammates say

Claude Giroux saw the news on X, formerly known as Twitter, and had to send the text right away.

It was a text he had been waiting to send since he was traded almost two years ago. The text, categorized as “A little congratulations” by Giroux, was from the former Flyers captain to the guy who succeeded him and now has the “C” sewn on his jersey: Sean Couturier.

On the evening of Valentine’s Day, the Flyers showed the longest-tenured player on the team how much they loved and respected him. The 31-year-old Couturier became the 20th captain in team history.

Two seasons before Couturier first donned the orange and black, the Flyers made the Stanley Cup Final. But the following summer, a major shift in the lineup came with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter getting shipped out on the first day of the draft. The first-rounder the Flyers got in the trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets for Carter became Couturier. The Phoenix-born, New Brunswick-raised center was selected eighth in the 2011 NHL draft.

“I was at the draft when he got drafted and spent a lot of time with him at a young age and counted on him for some big minutes as a checking role and played him against some good players,” Peter Laviolette recalled. “He’s been a really good pro for a lot of years and now, I think a great call to be the captain of this team. ... Just from what I know about him in the past, fantastic kid that plays hard, works hard, does the right things, and it’s nice to see somebody like that get rewarded.”

Laviolette was the Flyers’ coach for the first 126 games of the 776 that Couturier has played, all with the Flyers. Now the New York Rangers bench boss, Laviolette witnessed a “well-spoken and polite” kid make the jump from Drummondville of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to the pros just 104 days after getting drafted.

The son of NHLer Sylvain Couturier, the young star notched back-to-back 96-point seasons in juniors, winning the Jean Béliveau Trophy in 2010 as the QMJHL’s top scorer, and the league’s MVP and the Michael Bossy Trophy as the league’s best prospect the following year. And although he put up offensive numbers in juniors, Couturier quickly became a guy the Flyers could trust and rely on defensively.

“He came into camp [and] I don’t think anybody expected him to come in and make the team. But he was such a detail player at that young age we decided to keep him because we could give them a role,” said Craig Berube, who was an assistant coach in charge of the forwards during Couturier’s first season.

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“He was mature for his age. He was just a good pro already and he didn’t even play pro,” Berube added. “He doesn’t say a whole lot. He’s a quiet guy, but he knows what he needs to do to help the team be successful. And I think that’s a big part of why you keep a guy at a young age like that.”

Just 18 years old, he played 14 minutes, 4 seconds in his NHL debut on Oct. 6, 2011, a 2-1 win against the Boston Bruins. Couturier finished the season with 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in 77 regular-season games, including one power-play point, two shorthanded goals, and four game-winners. It wasn’t the 30-plus goals he’d put up in 2017-18 and 2018-19, but the biggest hint of what was to come for the 2020 Selke Trophy winner was an eye-popping plus-minus of plus-18.

“You could just tell he was kind of wise behind beyond his years. Just how he kind of battled in the corners, kind of knew what you were thinking before you were thinking it,” former Flyer Scott Hartnell said.

“And that’s kind of why he’s such a great defender and a great hockey player because he’s thinking that game probably a second or two ahead of what that defenseman going back to the puck is and which way he’s going to go. He can read that just kind of by the way that he’s kind of trying to push you. So that was very evident right away.”

Couturier today is a complete player, a smart defensive guy who can also center the top line and put points on the board. But what stood out to Kimmo Timonen, who also played with Couturier in his first three NHL seasons, was the steadiness he had early on. The Flyers that first season were an older squad — guys like Jaromir Jagr, Timonen, and Danny Brière — that had made the Eastern Conference semifinals the year before and were hankering to pick up where 2010 left off. The team made the postseason again in 2011 before another second-round exit. Couturier was the lone teenager in the room and had three goals and one assist in 11 playoff games.

“He was a quiet guy but he came in with a lot of confidence, quiet confidence, and he showed that on the ice, not necessarily in the room, but on the ice,” Timonen said in a phone interview. “That’s what you need from a young guy. You don’t have to come in and be the leader right away, you have to learn your ways.

“But he came in and, as a young guy, we were able to put him in different spots and he got the job done. It’s not easy to play against top lines when you’re young and he was able to do that.”

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Quiet and mature.

Two words that were consistently mentioned by his former teammates and coaches when looking back on his first season. Brière noticed it immediately, and not just on the ice. Couturier moved into his Haddonfield home during his rookie season and quickly became a big brother to his kids.

“Early on when he moved in, I walked into his room and I checked on him as far as, do you need help with opening a bank account? Setting up your cell phone? Getting a credit card? And I realized quickly that he didn’t need any help,” the former teammate and now Flyers GM said. “He was way more mature and way more advanced than any 18-year-old I had ever seen before in my life.”

It’s a full-circle moment now for the GM and captain. Flyers coach John Tortorella told Brière it was time and Brière handed Couturier the role he would have gotten sooner had the centerman not been out for almost two years due to two back surgeries. The quiet kid who Giroux said “just laughed all the time and as [his rookie] season went on, got a little bit more comfortable and started being a little bit more vocal,” was officially handed the reins.

“When you get the ‘C’ on your jersey, it’s a great honor, especially in Philly where there’s a history of great captains. I think he’s earned it,” Timonen said. “He’s played here a long time, he’s seen ups and downs, and he’s gone through the injuries. And the main thing, as a team and as a captain, I think you don’t have to worry about him. You see Coots and you put him in any role you want and he’s going to get the job done.”

From a fresh-faced, quiet 18-year-old who came in and made his presence known on the ice to a guy who has become a 31-year-old defensive force with a knack for finding the back of the net, Couturier should have gotten the captaincy when Giroux was traded in March 2022. As The Tragically Hip said, “It’s been a long time running. It’s been a long time coming. It’s well worth the wait.”