The San Jose Sharks are planning to carry a joint press convention with staff captain Logan Couture on Tuesday the place Couture is predicted to announce the tip of his taking part in profession on account of harm, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. The information was initially reported by Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. Couture has been working to get well from Osteitis Pubis, a situation that causes irritation of the joints between pubic bones.
Couture made an in depth effort to return to recreation form after receiving his analysis forward of the 2023-24 season. He needed to miss the primary three months of the marketing campaign to rehab but told NHL.com in December of 2023 that he was optimistic and trending upwards.
“Lastly, knock on wooden, all the things continues to go properly and I’m over that hump and issues can proceed to pattern to me getting again to practising with the fellows,” Couture stated on the time.
He would skate in his first recreation of that season simply over one month after delivering that quote — and recorded an help in his return. However Couture’s comeback was short-lived, and he’d find yourself again out of the lineup on account of his harm after simply six video games. His last recreation, on January 31 of 2024, will now stand because the final of Couture’s storied NHL profession.
There’s a brief checklist of gamers whose title is extra ubiquitous with Sharks hockey than Couture’s. He spent all 16 seasons of his NHL profession with San Jose after being drafted by the staff with the ninth total choice within the 2007 NHL Draft. Over time, Couture labored his approach as much as the fifth-most video games (933) and fourth-most factors (701) in franchise historical past. He additionally ranks third in objectives (323) and fifth in assists (378).
Couture performed by way of his NHL rookie season on the 2009-10 Sharks — a legendary squad in franchise historical past that featured the likes of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, Dan Boyle, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski amongst many others. Couture solely scored 9 factors in 25 video games — the minimal to qualify a rookie season. He discovered his spot within the NHL lineup earlier than the tip of the common season and went on to assist San Jose with 4 objectives in 15 playoff video games because the staff chased a loss within the Western Convention Finals. Couture would play his first full season within the following 12 months. He scored a powerful 32 objectives and 56 factors in 79 video games through the common season and added 14 factors break up evenly in 18 playoff video games to once more push the Sharks to a loss within the Western Convention Finals.
Along with his legs below him, Couture rapidly grew to become a locked-in piece of the Sharks’ each day lineup. He held down a set-and-forget function as San Jose’s second-line middle all through the 2010s, serving because the young-and-reliable punch behind Thornton, Marleau and Pavelski because the trio aged. He routinely rivaled the 30-goal and 60-point mark through the common season and persistently discovered a option to develop to point-per-game scoring within the postseason. That sentiment rang loudest through the 2015-16 marketing campaign, when Couture was compelled out of 30 common season video games by a damaged fibula — however then returned for a blinding 10 objectives and 30 factors in 24 playoff video games. He was the beating coronary heart of the Sharks lineup that summer season and pushed the staff to its first Stanley Cup Last in franchise historical past, solely to be overwhelmed by the dynasty-era Pittsburgh Penguins.
San Jose’s routine look within the postseason would fizzle out simply three years after their run to the Cup Finals. Couture scored 20 factors in 20 video games of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs to push the staff to 1 final run to the Convention Finals, however their partitions crumbled quickly after. Couture missed 30 video games of the 2019-20 season with a fractured ankle. His subsequent full season was in 2020-21, on a Sharks lineup with out Thornton and shortly to half with Marleau, Brent Burns, and Erik Karlsson. The Sharks continued to tear down by way of 2023-24 — sending Timo Meier to New Jersey in 2023 and Tomas Hertl to Vegas in 2024. By way of all the change and fluctuation, Couture remained the proud constant — holding robust to the captaincy and welcoming an more and more youthful roster with open arms.
Couture’s assist of the Sharks has stayed constant at the same time as he’s confronted career-ending harm. He’s supported rookie head coach Ryan Warsofsky for a lot of this season, serving to to make lineup selections and regulate star rookies to the subsequent stage. He enters retirement nonetheless in agency grip of San Jose’s captaincy — and certainly with a training or growth function quickly to return. Stepping onto a professional staff’s workers will probably coincide with Couture handing the Sharks’ “C” to one of many staff’s future superstars — most certainly Macklin Celebrini. That handoff will mark yet one more significant step in Couture’s journey as a Sharks legend, even when the main points surrounding it are unlucky. Couture’s solely {hardware} throughout his NHL profession was a Gold Medal on the 2017 World Cup — although his presence as a constant chief, robust two-way ahead, and top-echelon franchise scorer will nearly actually earn the Guelph, Ontario native respect from native Corridor of Fames over the approaching years.
