Marc Staal adjusting to new role as regular scratch

Not everyone believed him. But John Tortorella set the public stage for his current usage of defenseman Marc Staal way back on the first day of training camp in September.

“Marc Staal is going to play a major role with (the young defensemen), even if Marc isn’t playing some games,” Tortorella said. “As I stated to him, he’s not going to get in the way (of) the kids, (of) us developing the kids. There’s going to be some nights he’s not going to play.”

Those convinced that Tortorella would never bench Staal scoffed at his assertion at the time. Would Torts actually sit a grizzled veteran who he coached years ago in New York, who had only months earlier played a big role on a Stanley Cup Final team? Was Tortorella truly so committed to the Flyers’ overarching rebuild strategy, or when the chips were down, would he fall back on old stereotypes of his coaching instincts?

Apparently, Tortorella was telling the truth. And now, Staal is dealing with the harsh reality of being a healthy scratch.

“When Marc and I talked before he signed about what his role was going to be, it’s easy to talk about in the summer and say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,'” Tortorella noted on Tuesday. “But now he’s kind of living through it.”

When the 2023-24 season began, it wasn’t outlandish to have doubts about Tortorella’s willingness to sit Staal. After all, he began the year in the Flyers’ top-four, with Sean Walker on the second pair. And that may have lasted months, had the duo worked out. But midway through Game 4, Staal crashed into the boards along with Edmonton’s Warren Foegele, and came up holding his midsection.

The result? A cracked rib, a month on a shelf, and the loss of his start-of-season job. With Nick Seeler thriving on the second pair with Walker in his absence, Staal’s lineup security disappeared. Since being cleared for action in mid-November, the 36-year old has been a healthy scratch in five of 12 games — and over the last six, he’s sat three times, not including a night as the clear seventh defenseman in Colorado when he skated for just 8:30 minutes.

Staal admitted after Tuesday’s morning skate that it hasn’t been easy to transition into the role of regular healthy scratch.

“Yeah, it’s definitely challenging, I would say,” he said. “Getting injured like that… it’s tough when you get four or five weeks off right after you start, and now trying to get back in and you’re not playing every night. It’s definitely more of a mental challenge, to stay with it.”

The Flyers’ plan was always for Staal to serve as a mentor to the team’s young defensemen. Tortorella made it clear to Staal even before he signed on the dotted line that his playing time would not be prioritized at the expense of organization’s young blueliners at the NHL level; in other words, if he became a Flyer, he shouldn’t expect to play 82 games. Staal, who very much wanted to return to the northeast closer to home, decided that he could accept potentially being a rotational defenseman at age 36.

“To me, I never take for granted being in the lineup anyways, I never have,” he said. “You come in, you have to earn your ice time, you earn your job. So, to me, that wasn’t really too big of an issue, I don’t think, at this point in my career.”

But it’s not as if Staal has lost his job to a thriving young defenseman. 23-year old Egor Zamula is the one who has pushed Staal into the press box, and he’s been wildly inconsistent in his first full NHL season. It’s not at all unfair to argue that Zamula has not earned the ice time he is receiving over Staal — despite the veteran making a few glaring errors (especially in the early season) in a Flyers uniform, his underlying metrics at five-on-five are far better than those of Zamula, who is struggling mightily to push play in the right direction thus far.

All statistics courtesy of Evolving-Hockey.

In addition, Staal certainly has the more impressive resume — 1,112 games played, two Cup Final appearances, with the most recent one coming this past summer, in a 20-minute per night role. Zamula has a whopping 48 games to his credit thus far.

But the Flyers are focused on developing Zamula into something far better than he’s been to this point. He could, in theory, be part of their future, and prior to Tuesday’s game, Tortorella was seeing progress.

“Yeah, the last two or three games, I think he’s been more consistent within the game,” Tortorella said regarding Zamula after Tuesday’s morning skate. “I think he’s made some adjustments to his game. We’ve talked a lot about with him with one hand on his stick, because he plays so much with two hands, and he loses some of his length that way. I think he’s worked at that.”

So Zamula will play, in order to keep building on the positives in his game. And Staal, more often than not — at least while the rest of the defense is healthy — will sit.

But not necessarily every game. Tortorella sees value in Zamula watching from above on occasion, having the opportunity for mini-resets and remedial work with the coaching staff on specific points of emphasis.

“As I’ve said, I don’t think him sitting out games and watching other people play hurts him. I think it’ll help him,” Tortorella contended.

Specifically, Tortorella believes Zamula will benefit from watching Marc Staal.

“Marc Staal is built similar (to Zamula), (he) learned to use his stick,” Tortorella said. “I had Staalsy when he was really young, when he came in. But same type of body. I think same type of player, although I think Z has a little bit more offense than Staalsy. But for Staalsy to understand positioning and what his body is and what his stick length is, more than a lot of other people, I think it’s a good guy for (Zamula) to look at.”

Of course, this puts Staal in an awkward position. He was brought to Philadelphia in large part to be a mentor, to guide the young defensemen on the roster. But if he helps Zamula improve and play more like his prime-age self, doesn’t that mean fewer opportunities for Staal himself in the Flyers’ lineup?

“No, I’ve never really seen it that way,” Staal said with a laugh. “I’m a competitive person, and I want to be on the ice. But throughout my career, you win games, you’re on good teams, because you have good teammates that are unselfish and want the best for the team.”

Still, Tortorella wants to treat Staal with respect, even as he sits him more regularly moving forward. He aims to play him enough to keep Staal in at least something of a rhythm, in part for Staal’s sake and in part for the team, because they don’t want him cold in the event another defenseman gets injured and Staal is thrust back into the every-night lineup.

“The biggest thing for me is I need to be honest with Marc Staal each and every day,” Tortorella said. “And that’s what I will do, as far as where it’s all going.”

It helps that the two have a long-standing relationship, dating back to his time coaching Staal from 2008 – 2013. There’s mutual trust between the two. Staal even acknowledged that part of the reason why he ultimately chose to join the Flyers was because both Tortorella and Flyers GM Daniel Briere made him feel wanted, and articulated to him how integral a piece of the team’s planned rebuild that he would be. Briere even referred to Staal as “almost like an extra coach” in his interview with PHLY on Saturday.

So Tortorella is intent on making sure Staal doesn’t feel marginalized or misled, even as he sits.

“We’re just going to talk,” Tortorella said. “I had a talk with him yesterday. Just checking in on him, see how it’s going. Because it’s hard, because he’s a great competitor. Those are things him and I are gonna have to work out as we go through this.”

Tortorella wouldn’t be having those difficult conversations with a proud veteran if he planned to reverse course after one bad game and staple Zamula to a spot in the press box. Expect the youngster to keep playing regularly, even after rough nights like the one he had on Tuesday, when he coughed up multiple turnovers that nearly led to Nashville goals.

And Tortorella knows that he doesn’t have to worry about Staal throwing a tantrum if he sees Zamula making on-ice mistakes that Staal believes he would have avoided.

“Aw shit, you’ll never have a problem with an attitude with that guy,” Tortorella said. “He just doesn’t know anything more than ‘think about the team first.’ I’ll never worry about that with him.”

“I’m not going to go around and start kicking rocks and pouting,” Staal noted. “That just does no good for me, no good for the team, no good for anybody. It’s not going to help anything. So just trying to stay positive as I can, and when I get an opportunity, just try to play well, and take it from there.”