A Way Too Early Look At A Sean Couturier Extension With The Flyers

Philadelphia Flyers’ top-line center and 2019-2020 Selke Trophy winner, Sean Couturier is under contract for two more seasons with the orange and black. Couturier, on arguably one of the most team-friendly deal in the entire National Hockey League, will undoubtedly be looking for a significant raise. Couturier, 28, agreed to a six-year, $26 million contract which began in the 2016-2017 season. Since then, he has 245 points in 297 games played. “Coots” has spent his entire nine-year career with the Flyers since being drafted No. 8 overall by the Flyers in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. The pick was part of the Jeff Carter trade. Couturier was also recently awarded the Frank J Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL. Couturier will make $4.75 million this season and next before becoming an Unrestricted Free Agent for the first time in his career. Part of the reason the Flyers were so quiet this offseason could have been to save money for the Carter Hart extension, and for the offseason two years away when both Coots and Claude Giroux are due to hit free agency. It will be a busy next couple of years for GM Chuck Fletcher who has proven he can handle negotiating extensions with key players (Konecny, Provorov, Sanheim, Myers, and Lindblom most notably).

The best way to predict what Couturier’s next contract will look like is to examine players with similar worth. Couturier is the best two-way center in hockey, and is probably a top-ten center overall. One player who has been consistently compared to Coots in Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron. Like Couturier, Bergeron’s deal expires after the 2021-2022 season. Bergeron’s contract is hard to follow. Per Spotrac, Bergeron made $8.75 million each year over the first four years of his current deal which began in 2014-2015. In the following two years (2018-2019 & 2019-2020), his base salary diminished to $875,000. This is due to Bergeron’s $11.5 million signing bonus which he received when he first signed his contract. So, in the fifth and sixth years of his deal, he made $1.75 million on base salary, but $9.5 million in signing bonus. While Bergeron’s contract is very front-loaded, his salary becomes $3.375 million, and will also earn an extra $1 million in signing bonus for this upcoming season and the following season. Boston was smart to front-load his contract like that so they can afford to keep star players around him during the later years of his deal when his age goes up and production goes down. The Average Annual Value works out to $6.875 million per season. The Flyers could use this figure to their advantage as Couturier has yet to reach the peak of his career.

While the Flyers’ camp will most likely want a number close to that figure, Couturier’s camp would much rather see an AAV closer to Blake Wheeler’s $8.25 million AAV. Wheeler is a much more accomplished offensive player than Couturier, but his camp could argue that he does just as much defensively as Wheeler does offensively for the Winnipeg Jets.

One thing hindering the Flyers will be the fact that they will also have to re-sign Claude Giroux in the same offseason. While there is no doubt that Giroux is an all-time great Flyer and will have his number retired eventually, Couturier should be the Flyers’ priority. Couturier has proven to be the team’s most valuable player in the last two years because of all the work he does defensively and also for his offensive game really evolving. He has been the spark plug for players when they get into dry-spells. He is one of the best face-off men in the NHL. He kills penalties. He doesn’t take penalties. If the Flyers really think that they need to bring back both Giroux and Coots, it will really cost them financially. One option could be trading Shayne Gostisbehere and his contract to Seattle along with draft compensation, possibly a second-round pick, in exchange for Seattle picking James van Riemsdyk. One of JVR, Jake Voracek, and Kevin Hayes will have to be moved for both Giroux and Couturier to be brought back. Another issue the Flyers will have is working on a Joel Farabee extension that offseason, as well. Farabee will be an RFA after his ELC expires and if we have learned anything about RFA’s in the last two offseasons, it’s that they typically don’t sign right away.

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If the Flyers are short on the AAV side of the contract, they should get creative. They should throw in a no-movement clause, or a modified no-trade list. Maybe they give him the same offer they gave Kevin Hayes. Hayes is tied to Philadelphia for the next six years at $7.14 million AAV. That offer does include a full no-movement clause for the first three years. Getting creative shows Coots that they are not only committed to him financially but also long term. With Couturier on the roster, the Flyers are a much better team and have a much better shot at winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1974-75.