Sean Couturier and Nick Seeler will reach a major milestone in Sunday’s game vs. Avalanche

Couturier will play in his 900th game on Sunday, while Seeler will hit his 400th. Both feel a sense of gratitude as their NHL careers have been filled with twist and turns.

Sean Couturier (right) talks with teammate Nick Seeler against the Penguins on Oct. 28.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

by Jackie Spiegel

Published Dec. 6, 2025, 6:42 p.m. ET

Sitting in his stall on Saturday, Nick Seeler said it best after a long practice in Voorhees that saw the Flyers use both sheets on ice.

“Everyone has their different stories,” he said.

True.

A little over 14 years ago, the defenseman and Sean Couturier’s NHL paths first crossed in Minnesota. Couturier walked onto the stage at what was then the Xcel Energy Center after he heard his name called by the Flyers with the eighth overall pick. The next day, 123 picks slots later, Seeler, who hails from nearby Eden Prairie, Minn., heard his name called by the Minnesota Wild.

Years later, their paths converged in the City of Brotherly Love, and on Sunday, they will each hit a significant milestone.

“Pretty special,” said Couturier, who will play in his 900th game on Sunday against the visiting Colorado Avalanche (1 p.m., NBCSP). “It’s been a journey, but it goes by quick. I still remember draft day like it was yesterday, and it was the beginning of a dream come true.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs throughout the years, throughout the games played. But it just makes you reflect how lucky we are to be where we are.”

Couturier, who will turn 33 on Sunday, too, made his NHL debut a few weeks later for the Flyers as an 18-year-old center. Seeler went to college and didn’t make his NHL debut until February 2018. He will play in his 400th game on Sunday and, as his stallmate Jamie Drysdale chimed in, it is a huge milestone.

“You’re talking about a team-first guy. [Seeler] is it, right? And it’s a great goal for him,” said coach Rick Tocchet. “... To me, it’s impressive, just the way he plays the game, plays it hard, plays it honest, and he makes himself and his players accountable, and that’s what I love [about] him in the room. He’s a great culture guy.”

The biggest part of Seeler’s story is that the 32-year-old walked away from hockey almost four years ago. Then a member of the Chicago Blackhawks, Seeler needed time to clear his head, and in January 2021, the team agreed to mutually terminate his contract.

While he continued to work out, he stayed off the ice. But his fire to play returned, and then-Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher, who was the one who selected Seeler to Minnesota in 2011, gave him an opportunity.

Seeler has found a home in Philly as an everyday defenseman for the first time in his career and is in the second season of a four-year, $10.8 million contract signed in March 2024. At the time, he was playing on a two-way deal for the league minimum ($775,000) and had made just over $3.4 million across his career.

As defenseman Travis Sanheim said on Saturday about Seeler, “[He’s] had to grind to get to where he’s at... and finding a role here, and sticking it out and obviously getting a contract that he rightfully deserved, just really happy for him.”

Does it mean more to Seeler to hit the milestone after everything he’s gone through?

“Yeah, it does. 100%,” Seeler said. “It means a lot to me, especially doing it with the Flyers and and somewhere I feel it’s been such a blessing to be here.

“You know, when I came back after that year, I think I told my dad, I said, ‘If I play one more NHL game, it’d be pretty special.’ And now here we are. ... I definitely appreciate every moment here and don’t take it for granted.”

As for Couturier, his path was different than Seelers but kind of the same. About to join just three players who have skated in at least 900 games for the Flyers — Bill Barber (903), Claude Giroux (1,000), and Bobby Clarke (1,144) — he also missed a long stretch of time.

The Flyers captain dealt with back problems that began in 2020-21 and continued to plague him the following season; Couturier played on Dec. 18, 2021, and then not again until the 2023-24 season opener. The New Brunswick native underwent two surgeries, including back revision surgery in October 2022

Questions began to surface if he’d ever play again — and Couturier wondered it, too, at one point — but he took his time after the second surgery, and after missing 135 games for the Flyers, he found his way back.

“It’s crazy. I remember when I was like, I don’t know, 24, 25, I was still young, and I was here since 18, so I was racking up the games played,” he said. “And guys used to kid around that I’d hit 1,000 games before I was even 30 — which was pretty crazy.

“And then injuries happen, a bunch of different things happen, and it’s a lot harder than it seems. I’m just grateful that I have the opportunity to show up here, be in a great environment, be in a great organization and, yeah, just enjoy the game.”

Couturier knows not to take anything for granted. Like Seeler, he has become a leader in the locker room and has become someone his teammates look up to. Travis Konecny, who will play in his 673rd game with the Flyers on Sunday, has learned a lot from the captain and calls him an inspiration.

“What an honor to play that many games in this league. How many guys get to play one?” he said.

So what would Couturier say to your 18-year-old self today?

“Good question. What would I say?,” he paused. “Probably just enjoy it. Enjoy the game. Enjoy everything that goes around you. I feel when I was 18, I was just so serious, so focused, which is not a bad thing, but I think throughout the years, I figured to kind of balance it out and take the game on a little lighter side at times, and don’t want to be so serious and focused.

“That’s probably the thing I’d recommend to myself. Just loosen up a little bit and enjoy it.”

Does he still enjoy it today?

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a big toothless grin, “every day.”

Breakaways

Defenseman Cam York is still day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Tocchet said he had just talked to him before addressing the media, and the blueliner is a “slight option” for Sunday. He will speak to him in the morning. ... The Flyers did recall defenseman Ty Murchison on Saturday night. A fifth-round pick in 2021, he has four points (one goal, three assists) in 21 games this season for Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. ... Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, skating in a non-contact jersey, participated in the majority of the practice on Saturday. According to Tocchet, Ristolainen is getting close and will be a practice participant the rest of the way until fully healthy and cleared to return.