Flyers place Sean Couturier on IR with upper-body injury

The Flyers will be without one of their top forwards for a little while. The team announced late Thursday (Twitter link) that Sean Couturier is out with an upper-body injury and has been placed on injured reserve. He is listed as being out week to week.

It has been a tough year for the 29-year-old, who has struggled offensively compared to his production from the last few seasons. In 29 games, Couturier has just six goals and 11 assists, his lowest points-per-game average since 2016-17. He continues to play a big role defensively as always and is winning nearly 56% of his faceoffs, but as someone whho was penciled in as the top center, that production is somewhat underwhelming. GM Chuck Fletcher did reveal earlier this month that Couturier has been playing through a variety of upper-body and lower-body issues this season.

Even with the slower than anticipated start offensively, Couturier will still be a big loss for the Flyers, which are still playing him more than 20 minutes per night. After clearing COVID protocol earlier this week, the hope was that he’d be ready to return to the lineup, but now, the Flyers hope that he won’t be out more than a few weeks as they look to hang around the mix in the battle for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.