Sean Couturier plays more than any other Philadelphia forward in all situations, and now the Flyers can bank on their No. 1 centre playing a lot for a long time.
Couturier signed a US$62-million, eight-year extension Thursday that keeps him under contract through the 2029-30 season at a salary cap hit of US$7.75-million. That was the price in dollars and length to keep an all-around star in orange and black rather than testing free agency next summer.
“Sean’s our best hockey player right now, and he’s the key guy,” general manager Chuck Fletcher said on a video call. “If Sean had left, that would’ve changed the direction of the franchise. To lock him up was incredibly important for the short and long term.”
Now 28, Couturier will be 37 when this contract expires. That’s of little concern to Fletcher in his attempt to turn the Flyers back into contenders and build a team that can compete for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship since 1975.
Instead, this is about capitalizing on Couturier’s prime, a year since he won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward and fresh off an almost point-a-game season with 18 goals and 23 assists in 44 games. Couturier is also a two-time 30-goal scorer.
Couturier’s contract is worth the same as the deal Andrei Svechnikov agreed to with the Carolina Hurricanes earlier Thursday. It also carries a full no-movement clause for the first seven seasons, and in the eighth year Couturier must submit a list of 10 teams to which he’d agree to be traded.
The Associated Press