The Flyers signed center Sean Couturier to a 6 year contract extension worth $25 million on Tuesday July 28^th. He is in the final year of his current 2 year $3.5 million contract, in which he will be earning a cap hit of $1.75 million.

Most fans have mixed feelings about “Coots” due to his moderate offensive numbers, however many forget that he is only 22,  has played under two different coaches at a very young age, and despite being a center he has been heavily utilized as a defensive specialist during many penalty killing opportunities. He has done an excellent job shutting down opponent’s star players including Evgeni Malkin, especially during the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Couturier has generated 45 goals and 73 assists in regular season contests and 3 goals and an assist in 18 playoff games as a Flyer. He also assisted in Team Canada’s 2015 World Championships Gold Medal run, where he recorded 3 goals and 4 assists in 10 games.

During an interview with CSN Philly, Couturier mentioned that he is extremely excited to continue his career with the Flyers but most importantly he understands that it is time for him to step-up his game on offense and feels as though he can really improve under new head coach Dave Hackstol.

It would be nice to see if Hackstol could help revamp Couturier’s offensive skills as he continues to develop. It would turn him into quite a highly skilled two-way forward that would strengthen the team’s offense as he could be utilized on both the 2^nd and 3^rd lines.

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