He was a 2nd line center in name only. Neither Schenn nor Simmonds are possession drivers and below avg even strength players.Fraser wroteCOLONHe was playing on the 2nd line with combinations of Schenn, Simmonds, Read, none of which are offensive black holes. He's never gonna be the #1 guy in Philly, so I don't know where this added opportunity is meant to be coming from. At any rate I think Couturier is absolutely great at what he does, and fulfils his role in Philly quite well, and is a personal favorite of mine.CasperX22 wroteCOLONHe kind of has to be given an opportunity to score before he can actually prove it. Anybody that doesn't believe Couturier still has 60+ potential hasn't been paying attention, doesn't care, or trying to acquire him on the cheap in hopes that I am ignorant to how good Couturier actually is.Fraser wroteCOLONIts a very realistic assessment going forward in my opinion.Forsberg scored 70 pts? I wasn't aware that 63 was closer to 70 than 60 lol! And if you view Couturier as a 40 pt center moving forward then lol at you!
Doesn't mean he isn't valuable, but a lot of people who were pumping Couturier high offensive future bandwagon are now jumping off.
Doesn't mean he can't be a strong 2 way centerman with high SHTOI and strong contibutions elsewhere across the statline.
I don't anticipate him becoming an elite BBKL center with high scoring added to his periph value, you clearly do, and I don't think you will find someone who will be willing to pay to your projected future offensive level of his, so you would probably be best holding onto him if you see him becoming that elite of a center in this league.
Read played the majority of the season with a torn ligement in his ankle and clearly wasn't the same player this year.
He plays the hardest minutes out of any forward in hockey. Always playing the other teams top line and being buried with defensive zone draws. His burden will be lightened next year.
To say he played with competent forwards all season is inaccurate, however; when he did play with Schenn or Simmonds his offensive production spiked and they aren't even avg forwards.
