The 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers season was a roller coaster for veteran forward Sean Couturier. He returned from a two year injury absence, was named captain of the team he has been a part of since 2011, saw his play fall off a cliff and a late season feud with John Tortorella complicated a relationship that’s set to last a few more years.
When the offseason finally rolled around and theoretically gave some time for tensions to cool, news broke that Sean Couturier ditched his previous agent in favor of veteran agent Pat Brisson of CAA Sports.
Couturier’s swapping of agents at a seemingly random point in time has sparked some rumors that there could be an ulterior motive for doing so, like having a new third party involved to spark a potential trade.
Now, chances are he changed agents because Couturier was the only NHLer the other guy represented and he wanted a senior agent to manage the back nine of his career as more of a “just in case” option. His previous guy was fanning some flames between player and team (specifically the coach) and maybe that was the exact opposite of what Couturier wanted.
But could there be mutual interest from either (or both) sides in moving on?
Couturier is 31 years old with six years left on his contract with a $7.7 million AAV. He spent the back half of the season playing fourth line minutes and has injury history longer than the remaining term on his deal. He was named captain back in February, a title he enjoyed for all of 34 days before being healthy scratched due to his declining play.
There have been various rumors to spark up ever since, adding personal reasons to the mix instead of just a smart business deal to potentially clear his contract from the book. But moving the remaining $46.5 million on his contract is not going to be an easy feat.
Even though the salary cap is set to rise by multiple millions for the first time since the pandemic, trades in the NHL aren’t getting any smoother and won’t for quite a few more years. The only way to move a contract as grotesque as Couturier’s deal in the current NHL financial landscape is to swap with a similar albatross.
Someone like Jonathan Huberdeau (7 x $10.5) or Johnny Gaudreau (5 x $9.7) have been names throw around the rumor mill as potential veterans on bad deals seeking a change of scenery. Gaudreau has one less year on his deal with a slightly higher AAV and has been producing on a God-awful Columbus squad, and even though Huberdeau has more term and more money, he’s just two years removed from a 115-point season, a number he hasn’t come close to replicating since joining Calgary. Both players will turn 31 before the start of the 2024-25 campaign, Couturier will turn 32 in December.
Does Couturier have more in the tank than the his end-of-season play suggested? The answer is probably yes, but with his age and recent injury history factored in, it was just a matter of time before he declined naturally anyway. He’s played some of the hardest minutes in the NHL every year since he arrived in 2011 and wasn’t particularly fast or dynamic to begin with. Throw in a pair of knee and back problems and it’s unlikely he ever returns to his Selke-caliber self again.
But the organization named him captain for a reason- they thought he would be here for a long time and steer the ship as the team theoretically gets younger around him. When the front office randomly named him captain in February, they probably didn’t anticipate John Tortorella throwing things into limbo 34 days later.
But is that pesky “C” the only thing keeping him in town? If they didn’t make the rash decision to make him the leader, would they consider moving him? Even if there was a tentative agreement from both sides to evaluate the trade field, his contract would limit the teams that would have interest. While it may not be a 100% impossibility Couturier gets traded, it sure doesn’t feel like there’s a single star aligning that would indicate a deal is on the horizon.
Both Couturier and the Flyers (albeit it was Chuck Fletcher who inked his deal) committed to an eight-year relationship that’ll last through 2030. And until the salary cap gives teams more breathing room to move bad money around with a little more ease, both sides are probably stuck together whether they like it or not. Whether Tortorella and Couturier can mend fences will be among the more interesting storylines to monitor heading into the 2024-25 campaign, because it’s highly unlikely Couturier isn’t a part of the team next season.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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