Couture Not Close To Coming Back, But Still Helping Sharks

Logan Couture isn’t close to coming back.

The San Jose Sharks captain hasn’t played since Jan. 31, 2024, after a recurrence of a deep groin issue that sidelined him for the first three months of the 2023-24 campaign.

Couture hasn’t skated since then, after playing in just six games last year.

“He’s continuing to train and go through the rehab process with our training staff. That’s kind of where it’s at right now. I don’t think he’s any closer to getting on the ice right now,” San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky said on Monday.

Warsofsky, however, wouldn’t go as far as ruling Couture out for the 2024-25 campaign, “I don’t think we’re at that point yet.”

Of course, 42 games into the season, it’s hard to imagine Couture making a comeback by April.

Warsofsky says Couture is still helping the Sharks though: “He’s at the games at home. He’s in our meetings. He’s on the roster, like he’s getting prepared to play. He’s still the captain of our hockey team.”

Couture is doing more than just following the same old routine too. He’s also spending time with youngsters Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.

“If you walk in the breakfast room, he’s usually sitting with Mack and Will and talking to those guys,” Warsofsky shared.

Couture is also a resource for the coaching staff.

“I talk to Cooch quite a bit, whether it’s after games, we talk very regularly of what he’s seeing. He’s obviously been around a lot and seen a lot of hockey, a lot of winning hockey,” Warsofsky said. “[Assistant coach Doug Houda has] talked to him about the penalty kill and [assistant coach Brian Wiseman], the power play, all sorts of different topics that have come up this year.”

But of course, more than anything, a hockey player wants to be playing hockey.

“It’s tough,” Warsofsky said. “You have a physical injury, but there’s also a mental injury that goes with that, of having this routine of being a hockey player since you were, some guys since they were 2, 3, 4, years old of you go the rink, you get ready for your game, you get ready for your practice, and all of a sudden, that’s stripped from you.”

Couture, the San Jose Sharks captain since 2019-20, has 323 goals and 378 assists in 933 regular season games. The 2007 ninth-overall pick has excelled in the playoffs, putting up 48 goals and 53 assists in 116 contests. From 2010, Couture’s first post-season appearance, to 2019, the Sharks’ last, only Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, and Evgeni Malkin have scored more playoff points.

Couture, 35, has an $8 million AAV, and his contract expires after the 2026-27 season.