Flames third-year forward Couture plays for future

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By Craig DeVrieze | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 |

Derek Couture of the Quad-City Flames lifts the puck into the air as he moves it down the boards at the i wireless Center. (Quad-City Times file photo) Buy this Photo

The Quad-City Flames know a playoff run almost certainly isn’t in the cards.

Still, Derek Couture and his teammates are playing for beyond the season’s final seven games.

Like, perhaps, for the chance to play 80 more next season.

“My contract is up, so I have got to play the waiting game this summer,” third-year Flames forward Couture said Tuesday. “They will make you sweat a little bit and hopefully we will get something done.’’

Coach Ryan McGill said Couture and a host of Flames veterans with expiring contracts had better work up a sweat while this first Q-C season winds down to a conclusion.

“There are a lot of things at stake,” he said. “Contracts. Impressions. You’ve got (seven) games left. There are a lot of guys in the last year of their contracts, guys coming off of entry level contracts that are going to be qualified or they are the ultimate free agents.“This organization looks at these last games as time for them to prove they are worthy of another contract.”

Couture will try and do that the way he has done it all year. Bringing energy to the ice. Fighting hard along the walls. Banging on the forecheck. Mucking in goals when, where and if he can.

Couture scored his 10th goal in Tuesday’s 4-3 shootout win at Iowa and already has exceeded his rookie-season career high of seven.

McGill figures why stop there?

“I would love to see him score six so he gets to 15,’’ said the coach. “That would be the overachievement we are looking for out of everybody.”

Couture has achieved where hard-workers achieve, and where McGill said his team has underachieved of late.

“If you look at all his goals, they are from 5 feet, right around the net,” McGill said. “And that’s what we need in terms of offense these last games. That’s what we have lacked, being able to get to the hard areas and bang away at pucks.”

Couture said he makes his living in those hard areas.

“Those are the kinds of goals where you have got to get your nose dirty and bang away,’’ he said.

The 24-year-old right winger from Calgary clearly would love to stay in the organization of his hometown Flames and believes he proved that as a third-year pro.

“I had to come in here and step up my game,” said Couture, who already has set a career-high with 101 penalty minutes and is two points away from exceeding the 19 he scored as a rookie. “Playing for ‘Gilly’ the last two years, I knew what he expected out of me. I don’t think numbers reflect the way you play sometimes, but they always help out.”

Certainly, numbers won’t always show the value of a third-line player like Couture.

“My role is just to be an energy player and play simple so I don’t make any mistakes out there,’’ he said. “I am just a guy you put on the ice and know that I will do my job.’’

Now, he needs to punch the clock seven times more.

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.