3 Players Flyers Could Pursue If Coots Is Sidelined for Long (+)

The Philadelphia Flyers’ season is at the crossroads before it even starts.

If top-line center Sean Couturier is going to miss most or all of the season, general manager Chuck Fletcher has a major decision to make.

Does he bite the bullet, let the losses pile up, and improve his team’s position to draft center Connor Bedard, who is viewed as a generational player?

Or does he make a trade and try to make the Philadelphia Flyers competitive?

We should know more about Couturier’s injury status in the coming days, perhaps when Fletcher addresses the media Thursday, when training camp opens.

Couturier, 29, is officially listed as week to week with an upper-body injury, but there are hints that he has re-injured his surgically repaired back and could be sidelined for a while. Another surgery is possible.

In any event, here are three players who might interest Fletcher if doctors say Couturier will miss most of the season:

Pierre-Luc Dubois, Winnipeg

He is the most attractive player on the list, but only if he could get along with his former Columbus coach, John Tortorella, now the Flyers’ bench boss. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound center played for