The kids for the Flyers are here. Now, how do they all play?

When the Philadelphia Flyers announced their intention to commit to a full-fledged rebuild, it sent one very clear message to the fans: expect the focus to turn towards player development and building for the future, over trying to win as many games as possible in the here and now.

In other words, they were going to play “the kids” — the prospects in the organization.

Step 1 of the plan was executed on Monday evening, when Flyers general manager Daniel Briere submitted an opening night 23-man roster with all of Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae included.

That was the easy part. Now it’s time for the much more difficult Step 2: making sure they all get to play.

“I think early on, I think it’s a respectful thing for the opener to treat the veterans right,” Briere said on Tuesday morning. “But then their play will dictate who plays. You all know Torts by now. He’s not afraid if someone is not performing, he’s not going to hold back, he’s going to play the young guys.”

The 2023-24 season is going to be a constant balancing act for Briere, head coach John Tortorella, and the rest of the organization. They aim to stay competition, to build a positive culture and initiate the makings of a sustainable on-ice identity. To do that, they want quality veterans like free agent signing Garnet Hathaway and useful RHD Sean Walker in the lineup to help. But they also want to properly develop their prospects, and to do so, those youngsters will need NHL ice time — and a lot of it.

On Tuesday, the first push/pull of that internal conflict became apparent.

Right now, only Brink — who skated with Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee on the first line — appears to be a lock to play in Game 1 on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Foerster skated as an extra, as did Andrae. Zamula for now appears to be on the third pair (with Nick Seeler), but Rasmus Ristolainen — who was placed on IR with a minor nagging injury in the lead-up to roster finalization — skated with the team for about half of practice and then on his own for the other half. Briere confirmed that Ristolainen was still theoretically eligible to play on Thursday if he is cleared medically, and if so, it very well could be Zamula’s spot that he takes.

“He skated yesterday, he skated today. I’m encouraged that he’ll be ready to go by Thursday,” Tortorella noted after practice.

Briere strongly hinted that Tortorella would look to go with a veteran-heavy lineup for Game 1, though Tortorella himself declined to discuss the specifics of his potential lineup until the morning of the game. And it’s not like such a strategy is indefensible — the prospects don’t have to play every game to develop properly in the NHL, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with rewarding veterans who had strong camps (such as Nicolas Deslauriers and the rest of the fourth line, who excelled in preseason action) by locking them into the lineup over unproven youngsters for Game 1.

The question is whether that will prove to be a one-game anomaly, or a recurring trend. Briere was adamant that it wouldn’t be the latter.

“Again, it’s something (where) early on for the opener, Torts might lean a little bit more by respect towards the veterans,” he said. “But after that, it’s gonna be their play (that decides who starts).”

Brink, at the very least, appears guaranteed an early lineup spot — a testament to the quality of his camp. In fact, Briere admitted that entering September, Brink was a legitimate longshot to make the big club. He truly banged down the door.

“Bobby, we didn’t expect him to be as good as he was,” Briere said. “I think he’s been probably our best forward in training camp.”

In fact, he was so good that he’s apparently pushed Foerster down the pecking order, at least for now. Still, Foerster did nothing to lose his spot in camp, especially given the fact that — as Briere was willing to admit now — he entered having the inside track for one. It appears that the coaching staff was very much in favor of Foerster ending up on the final roster.

“As far as Tyson, we had the expectation that he would start with us,” Briere explained. “His play was solid. I know he wasn’t on the scoresheet as much as Bobby, but the details in his game we all liked, and coaches were on board. He’s someone that you can rely on.”

Given the coaches’ clear affinity for Foerster’s game, it’s tough to imagine the 21-year old not getting an extended look at the NHL level to begin the season. But it’s also difficult to see who he pushes out in the early going, if not fellow prospect Brink. Briere had even more praise for the fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway on Tuesday, dubbing them “The PhD line.” You don’t give a line a name if you’re planning to break them up in Game 2.

And while Tortorella does love himself a good message-sending healthy scratch, is he really ready to send one of the five other veteran scoring wingers — Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Cam Atkinson, Joel Farabee or Scott Laughton — to the bench to get both Brink and Foerster in the lineup for the same game? In the here and now, at least until injuries strike, it appears that a Brink/Foerster rotation is the only realistic option, if the coaches insist upon keeping the PhD line together.

As for the defense, Andrae appears to be the prospect on the thinnest ice in terms of holding onto a roster spot, but Briere’s effusive praise of the young defenseman hints that when Ristolainen is cleared, it won’t be Andrae getting sent down to keep the Flyers at 23 active roster players. In fact, Briere compared Andrae’s play in camp to that of Brink, in that both showcased the risk-taking on-ice style that the Flyers want their prospects to deploy.

“(Andrae) and Bobby Brink both made some plays and made some mistakes. But we all felt that they didn’t play it safe. They just kept going after it,” Briere explained. “They want to improve. And for us, that’s the best part, is when you see a young player try to figure out where the limits are, and what they can get away with at the NHL level and what you can’t do. Especially for those two guys, I thought training camp was amazing. Because they realized some of the plays they can’t make, but they were also not afraid to go after it and try things.

“I’m not promising they’re going to be here all season, but they deserve to start the season because of their aggressiveness, the way they competed, the way they make plays. We want to see more of them.”

Still, if Tuesday’s practicing pairs were any indication, Andrae is currently behind Zamula on the NHL depth chart, which makes sense. Not only was Zamula’s camp far more consistent, Zamula also is no longer waiver-exempt, which means that the Flyers don’t have the luxury of sending him down to the minors if they prove unable to get him into games, like they do with Andrae. Zamula’s development has to be in the NHL, making it logical that he would be prioritized.

But even Zamula could find himself on the outside looking in for Game 1, if Ristolainen is indeed cleared. Then, it becomes a question of which defensemen give way for the two prospects in the coming games. Nick Seeler began last season as the team’s nominal No. 7 defenseman, but he was one of the club’s best blueliners in 2022-23 and has earned lineup security. Marc Staal skated in the top-four of a Stanley Cup Final club in June. And as for trade acquisition Sean Walker, it sure doesn’t sound like Torts is itching to marginalize him, either.

“You guys don’t talk about him, but you should,” he said on Tuesday. “Competitive. Right shot. I think he’s had a really good camp.”

It’s going to go against Tortorella’s instincts to sit players like Staal, Seeler and Walker just to give young blueliners like Zamula and Andrae long looks at the NHL level to begin the season. Nobody said Step 2 was going to be easy, especially after Briere added a number of useful bottom-of-the-lineup vets (Walker, Staal, Hathaway) over the summer, making it far easier to envision a scenario where the kids do indeed get boxed out by quality players who might be better now, but have little chance of contributing on the next contending Flyers club.

Perhaps Briere and the Flyers will ultimately give up, and send one or more of the opening night prospect group — Brink, Foerster, Zamula, Andrae — to the minors to get the game action that can’t secure yet with the Flyers. Briere didn’t rule that possibility out on Tuesday. But if the Flyers are serious about rebuilding — and given their opening night roster, it appears that they want to be — they need to be as dedicated to Step 2 (playing the kids) as they were for Step 1.

We’ll soon find out if they truly are.

Camp notes

• Felix Sandström remains on the Flyers’ roster, but Briere strongly hinted that he would be the most likely casualty once Ristolainen is cleared to be removed from IR. He was only willing to guarantee that Sandström would stay on the club — giving the Flyers three goalies on their roster — for “the next few days.”

• So why is Sandström still here? It likely comes down to two factors: waivers, and Tampa Bay. Sandström needs to clear waivers in order to be sent down, and the Flyers appear worried that the Lightning — who will be without Andrei Vasilevskiy for at least two months — may swoop in and snatch Sandström. The Flyers aren’t the only team with said worry: all of Buffalo, Detroit, Los Angeles and Montreal are starting the season with three goalies on their roster, likely due to similar concerns. They may ultimately have to risk it with Sandström once Ristolainen is cleared, but placing the defenseman on IR allowed them to kick the can down the road a few more days, likely in the hope that Tampa makes another move in the interim that takes them out of the goalie market.

• Brink switched his number from No. 46 to No. 10 — but no, it’s not a John LeClair reference. Brink is an admirer of Lionel Messi, the legendary Argentinean soccer player, who also wears No. 10. “I haven’t seen him play, but I’ve watched a lot of his highlights on YouTube,” he said. “I never (played soccer as a kid), but the video game (EA’s FIFA series) got me into it, and now I follow everything.”