Defenseman Marc Staal out ‘weeks’ as the door opens for Flyers youngsters to get ice time

DALLAS — The Flyers brought in veteran defenseman Marc Staal in part because they wanted him to be a mentor, an on-ice coach of sorts to a team with inexperienced players pushing for roster spots and playing time.

Now, his off-ice presence is all that’s available.

Flyers coach John Tortorella confirmed Saturday that the team would be without Staal for “weeks.” The team is calling it an upper-body injury. The 36-year-old left Thursday’s game vs. Edmonton in the second period after crashing into the boards.

Staal’s injury left the Flyers with six healthy defensemen on the ice during Saturday’s morning skate at American Airlines Center. Rasmus Ristolainen, who has yet to appear in a game this season, remains on injured reserve, though he appears to be nearing a return.

How soon? It might not be until the Flyers return home from Las Vegas, where they play the defending champion Golden Knights on Tuesday.

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An injured Staal opens the door for the Flyers to get Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae into the lineup. The two prospects have been rotating in and out of the lineup to start the season.

Part of this Flyers season involves learning more about their prospects. They will have a good look at Zamula, 23, and Andrae, 21, while playing against two strong teams on the road this week. Tortorella seemed to tip off that both will play on Tuesday, too.

“They’re going to be in the fire here [Saturday] and the next game, that’s for sure,” Tortorella said. “Two pretty good teams. This is what we’re doing it for. I don’t think any of the kids are intimidated by the league. They’ll go through some ups and downs as they’ve done in prior games this season. To me, injuries are part of the game. You put the guy in and you never know where it goes.”

It’s possible Ristolainen is ready to go for Tuesday night in Vegas. At the very least, the Flyers could activate him off of injured reserve and put Staal on IR.

» READ MORE: Egor Zamula looking to stay with the Flyers. Scoring his first goal vs. Vancouver didn’t hurt.

The Flyers made it a hat trick last season, ranking at the bottom of the NHL in power-play percentage for the third consecutive season. They weren’t at the bottom of the list Saturday morning, but close enough — at 28th out of 32 teams.

They entered Saturday’s game having scored just once in their 17 power-play chances. It’s been one of the few areas where the team has executed poorly out of the gates.

And it’s not just bad luck either.

“I think you can go through all the areas,” Tortorella said. “At times, getting in the end zone we’ve struggled. At times retrieving some pucks. It’s something we continue to try to work on.”

Tortorella said he thought he’d spark the unit when he moved Bobby Brink up with Sean Couturier’s group Thursday night, but it didn’t work.

“We’re going to keep on working with them and find our way,” Tortorella said. “I think we’ve developed a lot of offense early on this year except for maybe one game where we didn’t have the puck in Ottawa. We’ve got to try to find some sort of consistency with our power play, even if we don’t score a goal, just to keep the momentum on our side. That’s what worries me the most when a power play struggles. Maybe you don’t score the goal, great, but you just lose so much momentum sometimes. That’s our biggest concern.”

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Couturier said he believes they’re getting enough offensive zone time, just not doing anything with it. The team is averaging 1.2 shots on goal per power play.

“Sometimes we have to maybe simplify things and try to bring more pucks to the net,” Couturier said. “We have to find a way to generate more scoring chances.”

An advantage to having three goalies on the current 23-man roster: Carter Hart went through a longer workout Saturday morning and was given the night off. Sam Ersson was slated to make his first start of the year, and Felix Sandström was the backup for the first time. ... Morgan Frost was a healthy scratch for the third consecutive game. ... The Flyers are off Sunday. They practice Monday in Las Vegas before playing the Golden Knights on Tuesday (11 p.m., ESPN).