When Logan Couture was nursing multiple injuries last season he never imagined he would be a on the cover of a video game in less than a year.

He also never envisioned that he would feel good enough lead the Sharks to a Stanley Cup Final or join Team Canada for the World Cup.

“It was a difficult year. It was probably the toughest year I had professionally by far,” Couture said.

Couture suffered a fractured right fibula in the first week of the NHL season, an injury that required surgery that kept him out almost two months.

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Then when he came back, he suffered a small arterial bleed near his right thigh area two games later, which kept him out three weeks after surgery.

Such issues are enough to derail a season for most players, but Couture seemed to find his game at the right time. He set a San Jose Sharks postseason record for points in a series with 11 against the Nashville Predators in the second-round of the playoffs. He led the NHL in playoff scoring with 30 points in 20 games.

His run, along with the Sharks’ push to the Stanley Cup Final, opened up a few doors for Couture. It was announced he was the cover athlete for NHL SuperCard 2K17, a card-battling game featuring NHL players.

Here is the description of the game from 2K:

The game features more than 400 collectible cards in active play, with each card representing one of seven different rarity levels. Alongside cover athlete Couture, fans will find a variety of current NHL players, including Nicklas Backstrom, Drew Doughty, Claude Giroux, Ryan Kesler, Carey Price and Tyler Seguin. In addition, players may complement their gameplay experiences by purchasing individual card packs.

Said Couture, “When I was younger, I collected hockey cards, there were certain players I wanted to get. You always wanted to get the better players, the guys who scored the most goals and with this it kind of brings the game into it where those players are more rare and you get excited when you get those guys and you play against them with people.”

We talked to Couture about the game, his 2015-16 season, his hopes for 2016-17 and his thoughts on why it seems like nobody’s picking the Sharks to replicate last year’s success.

Q: Have you thought of everything you went through last year to now being on a video game?

COUTURE: I mean, it definitely wasn’t on my mind at that point. I wanted to get back healthy and trying to play hockey again. Last year was such an incredible ride and being successful and if you get that exposure it’ll open up different opportunities individually and as an organization. I didn’t think this would happen but when (my agent John Thornton) told me about the opportunity I jumped at it and I was super excited for it.

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You were badly injured twice. Went to a Cup Final. You won the World Cup. It seems like it has been a whirlwind the last several months for you.

Yeah, it was weird when that final horn sounded at the World Cup and we were celebrating and you kind of get the feeling like ‘OK the season’s over’ but no, the season hasn’t begun yet. We got back to San Jose, we took some time to rest.

We played one preseason game and we’ve had a couple of hard days of practice. I don’t think there’s a better way to jump into a hockey season than playing your rival and playing the Los Angeles Kings (Wedensday at the season opener) who play hard and in San Jose the crowd is going to be into it. I’m just excited for the game. I think we all are.

How did you get your confidence back so quickly after all the injuries?

It was a difficult year. It was probably the toughest year I had professionally by far.

My ankle was extremely painful after some games. It took me a little while to get back into it and that run built back that confidence, the self-belief that you’re going to be the player I think I am. Any time your team is successful and you’re contributing, you get that extra confidence. It really just snowballed from there. We beat LA and then Nashville and kept going. We were confident at the end last year. We all know it’s a brand new season and things change quickly in this league. There’s 30 teams that want to get to the Final and it’s a long season.

Story continues