Sean Couturier was, and still is, a hockey player with a lot of promise. This upcoming season will be his fifth in the NHL, yet somehow on Dec. 7, he’ll be turning just 23. He started last season at 6-foot-3 and only 197 pounds, meaning there’s still ample room for the defensive specialist to get bigger, stronger, and even more difficult to play against.

When his 21/22-year-old season started for the developing center last October, many predicted it would be a breakout year for him offensively, which would make him an exceedingly valuable player, only … for some reason that never came to fruition.

Couturier totalled a mere 15 goals and 22 assists over 82 games in second-line minutes, leaving many to wonder - as they still do - if he’ll ever put up numbers. Maybe he’ll just be a still-useful defensive center, but never be a difference-maker.

And hey, maybe. But probably not. The whole “being on a bad team” thing probably conspired to keep him down.

With one year at $1.75 million left on his contract, the Flyers were recently able to extend him, and wisely - oh, oh so wisely - decided to take advantage of his fail-sound-on-The-Price-is-Right of a statistical season, and extend him for as long as possible. They got their second-line center with upside for a mere $4.33 million per season through 2022, quite literally through the prime of his career.

For NHL general managers, there’s no shame in cashing in on a player’s self-doubt when you can.

Were I Couturier though, I’m not sure I’d have any. There’s myriad reasons why I’d have wanted to avoid going long on a deal this summer, first and foremost being last season’s raw output versus my potential.

I’ve written about this with other players, but it’s almost impossible to put up good numbers on a bad team. Problems snowball, which can make an above average player look the opposite.

Your D can’t get the puck out of the zone? (I see you, Philly) Less chances at the offensive end, more time in the D-zone. That’s particularly draining for centers.

Wingers aren’t putting the puck in the right places? Back on defense.

On defense so much your team can’t score? You can’t rack up points.

No points? There goes the confidence.

At a glance, Couturier is still going to be facing many of these problems next season, but it’s unlikely his situation will become any more difficult.

Craig Berube had him spend the bulk of his time between R.J. Umberger and Matt Read - quite the honor, of course - starting in the D-zone, and playing tough minutes. He led Flyers forwards in short-handed ice time (on a heavily penalized Philly team), yet only saw the seventh-most power play minutes.

Might new Flyers’ coach Dave Hakstol use him differently?

Might another year of physical development, another year of hockey and life experience, a fresh start with a new bench boss push him beyond just “defensive specialist?”

There’s a good chance it will.

Stepping into the prime of his NHL career - particularly after having offensive success in junior - should have had Couturier wondering if he shouldn’t at least give himself a chance in the coming years to get paid like the big boys.

He could’ve waited until the season started to demonstrate he can be a 50-plus point player, and bump up the dollar amount on his deal. He could’ve pushed for a shorter term to elevate his status, making his next deal worth bank (using a name like Ryan O’Reilly as a comparable over his current status as a Tyler Bozak), instead of waiting until he’s nearly 30 in 2022 to try to cash in.

I realize the Flyers may still be bad next year (the Metropolitan Division looks to be super-competitive), but who knows about the years after that. It just seems exceedingly likely that the deal will end up being team-friendly, as at $4.33 million he’ll be paid to be the guy he was in 2014-15, when it’s reasonable to expect he’ll be far more than that. Imagine what kind of player will make $4.33 in five years.

So if you’re the Flyers, you love that deal. They were smart to offer it, and had to be a little surprised to see it accepted. In a salary cap world, there’s nothing smarter than going big on a guy whose value is low, as Garth Snow has often done in Long Island to largely impressive results.

Couturier just signed a 26 million dollar deal, so I’m not over here feeling pity for him or anything. But you only have so many years to cash in as an athlete, and coming off a disappointing year on a bad team, he failed to place a well-reasoned bet on himself to maximize his earnings.