Couturier put together an elite two-way campaign in 2018-19. He was very good offensively in terms of both volume and efficiency. Defensively, very few matched his impact. He ranked 1st among Flyers forwards in shot attempts against/60 and 2nd in expected goals against/60. His -5.6 relative shot attempts against number was 5th best among 131 forwards to log at least 1,000 minutes at 5v5. He was a beast and certainly deserved real consideration for the Selke. He wasn’t a finalist.
Couturier’s bid to change that in 2019-20 is certainly off to a great start. It’s only been two games, mind you, but it’d be hard – if not impossible – for him to play any better than he has.