Sean Couturier emerged as a legitimate two-way center last season, finally taking a big step forward after a good but uninspiring first two seasons in the NHL.
Fans were excited when he fell to Philadelphia in the eighth overall slot of the 2011 draft, and Couturier was solid as a rookie.
But then he failed to improve much in his sophomore year, which was an admittedly strange lockout-shortened season. Regardless, there were a lot of expectations for Couturier to be better in 2013-14, and he delivered.
Couturier posted a career-high 39 points, but anyone who follows the Flyers or has seen Couturier play knows that there is far more to his game than creating offense.
His advanced metrics were simply amazing last season. Looking at this graph on somekindofninja.com, it's easy to tell just how valuable Couturier was.
Out of Flyers forwards who played at least 60 games last season, Couturier played against the best competition and took only 42.6 percent of his faceoffs in the offensive zone.
This means that Couturier was trusted against opponents' best players, and he started a heck of ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Garrett Baker
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