In November 2016, he sprained the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee during a game against the Florida Panthers, and missed over a month of the season.

MCL injuries would continue to affect Couturier, who tore the ligament during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs and injured it again shortly before the 2018–19 season.

His family was Canadian, but lived in the area at the time because his father, Sylvain Couturier, was playing in the now-defunct International Hockey League for the Phoenix Roadrunners.

[2] When Sylvain retired from professional hockey in 2001, the Couturiers relocated to Bathurst, New Brunswick, where Sean attended both French and English-language schools.

[3] Because his father was often busy, serving as a hockey coach and later as the general manager for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Couturier grew close with his paternal grandmother, Denise, who moved in with the family after the death of her husband.

Although he also played baseball and basketball in high school at École Secondaire Népisiguit, hockey remained the primary object of Couturier's attention.

[11] Drummondville was left short-handed during the Memorial Cup when a bout of influenza spread through the team, and were ultimately eliminated in the semifinals with a 3–2 overtime loss to the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

[18] Couturier impressed the Flyers at training camp, and after the Montreal Canadiens claimed Blair Betts off of waivers, a position opened on the 50-man roster in case they wanted to keep him through the end of the season.

[23] During the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, Couturier was primarily tasked with slowing down Evgeni Malkin in the Flyers' series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

[28] Many of the team's struggles were attributed to off-season roster moves, with the loss of free agents Jaromír Jágr and Matt Carle, as well as the absence of a dependable backup goaltender for Ilya Bryzgalov.

ESPN speculated that part of the decision behind the firing was a concern that Couturier and Schenn, who were supporting rising star centre Giroux, were not developing as anticipated.

Couturier, frustrated with his reputation as a primarily defensive player, broke a 10-game goalless streak in December with a stretch of three goals and seven points in a span of six games.

[37] On July 28, 2015, one year before Couturier was set to become a restricted free agent, the Flyers signed him to a six-year, $26 million contract extension.

Still only 22 years old at the time of the extension, Couturier was considered a central piece of the Flyers' rebuilding plan, complementing new captain Giroux.

After leaving a game against the Nashville Predators on February 4, general manager Ron Hextall told reporters that Couturier was still suffering from the lower-body injury, and would need to miss four weeks to recover.

On November 22, 2016, during a game against the Florida Panthers, Couturier became entangled with Vincent Trocheck, and suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee.

He found his stride on a line with Schenn and Dale Weise, putting up five goals and 12 assists between March 4 and April 9, and leading the NHL with a +18 plus–minus rating in the last month of the season.

[48] Going into the 2017–18 season, however, Hakstol placed Couturier on the top line with Jakub Voráček and Giroux, the latter of whom was moved to the wing after a disappointing output the previous year.

[50] On March 20, 2018, while playing against the Detroit Red Wings, Couturier scored his 100th career NHL goal, becoming the seventh skater in the 2011 draft class to reach that milestone.

[54] During a team practice before Game 4 of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, Couturier collided with his teammate Radko Gudas and needed to be aided off the ice.

[57] Couturier revealed, after the elimination game, that the collision with Gudas had torn the MCL in his right knee, and that, if the injury had occurred during the regular season, he would have been sidelined for four weeks.

After Hakstol was abruptly fired, however, interim coach Scott Gordon pushed Giroux back to centre, pairing Couturier with Voráček and rotating the third member of their line.

[65] Couturier began the 2019–20 season as one of three alternate captains for the Flyers, serving alongside Voráček, who took over the job in February 2019 after Wayne Simmonds was traded, and off-season acquisition Kevin Hayes.

[66] After noticing that pairing struggling players on a line with Couturier resulted in their improvement, new Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault began referring to the skater as "Dr.

[71] Despite the playoff loss, Couturier won the Frank J. Selke Trophy on September 11, 2020, scoring 1424 points in the Professional Hockey Writers' Association ranked-choice vote.

[89] Although he had a solid performance, scoring three points in seven games, Couturier was largely overshadowed in the tournament by fellow prospects Brayden Schenn and Ryan Johansen.

[13] Couturier received his first Ice Hockey World Championships selection in 2015, where he posted three goals and four assists in 10 tournament games and helped take Canada to a gold medal.

[93] Couturier was one of five Flyers named to Team Canada for the 2017 IIHF World Championship, alongside Giroux, Simmonds, Schenn, and Konecny.

[97] He scored one goal and three assists while serving on the defensively-minded second line, centreing Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Sam Reinhart of the Buffalo Sabres.

[105] The street outside of the K. C. Irving Regional Centre, the home arena for the Acadie–Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), was renamed "Sean Couturier Avenue" in 2016.