Rick Tocchet wants to play Flyers’ young forwards more, but penalties are cutting into their time

Rick Tocchet wants to get Nikita Grebenkin more minutes. He also wants to get Jett Luchanko more minutes, and he’d like to find a few more for Matvei Michkov as well.

But so far, he hasn’t been able to because the Flyers just keep taking penalties.

“We’re killing five penalties a game, so the game shrinks to 50 minutes,” the Flyers coach said. “... We get out of the box, guys will get more ice time. That’s a hard spot for a coach, because those guys don’t kill, and then they’re the fourth line, so you don’t play them because of penalties.”

Tocchet said he hopes to move Grebenkin up the lineup, thanks to the winger’s performance in his first two games of the season.

Near the end of the home opener on Monday, Tocchet gave Grebenkin a shift with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny in place of Michkov with the Flyers up, 3-2, against the Panthers. Getting that opportunity gave Grebenkin a boost of confidence, and Tocchet wants to use him more.

The coach spent extra time with Grebenkin near the end of practice Tuesday working on one-timers, and the Flyers love how aggressive the 22-year-old has been jumping for pucks. But since Grebenkin isn’t on the power play or the penalty kill, there hasn’t been much time to use him. He’s averaging just 9 minutes, 37 seconds on the ice in his two games.

But Grebenkin, who had played just seven NHL games before this season, isn’t too worried about ice time yet.

“I don’t worry,” the Russian winger said. “Not big ice time, but it’s not bad. The team [won] the last game. It’s good. I don’t worry. I’m happy to win and work and wait for more ice time. Everybody wants to play more time, but it’s my first season in the NHL. I work, and I want to play and I want to win.”

» READ MORE: Flyers takeaways: Sean Couturier turns back the clock; Trevor Zegras dazzles in win over Panthers

Luchanko, the Flyers’ 2024 first-round pick, also has impressed on the fourth line with his skating and zone entry abilities, but he has averaged just 8:15 of ice time in his two games. The Flyers have seven more games to decide whether to keep Luchanko up for the full season or send him back to junior hockey, where he would be a focal point of Guelph’s offense.

Even Michkov has seen reduced ice time, thanks to the penalties, although an ankle injury he suffered during the summer has contributed to his slower start.

“All of a sudden, he’s getting 15 minutes,” Tocchet said. “If we don’t have penalties, he’s probably getting 17.”

The easy way to get everyone more ice time is to cut down on the penalty minutes, but that’s easier said than done.

So to spread the ice time around, when a player like Grebenkin moves up the lineup, as he did near the end of the Panthers game, that leads to players like Michkov moving down. Tocchet said that despite the late benching, he was encouraged by Michkov’s game against Florida.

“I thought he was better [Monday]. I thought he was moving his feet, he had some offense,” Tocchet said. “I thought he was really encouraging, to be honest.”

To keep Michkov fresh and ready, even when he can’t get the ice time Tocchet would like, the Flyers keep him out for extra practice and time watching video.

The Flyers want to roll all four lines, and they’ve gotten solid contributions from players down the lineup to start the season. They just need to stay off the penalty kill to take full advantage of that strength.

“We’re a balanced type of team,” Tocchet said. “We’re not a one-line team. We’re not a team that plays guys 25 minutes if we’re going to win, that’s the secret right now.”

Former Flyer Erik Johnson, who retired from the NHL in September, will join ESPN as a hockey studio analyst, the network announced … Cam York, who has been on injured reserve to start the season with a lower-body injury, was a full participant in practice on Tuesday. The defenseman could return as soon as Thursday against Winnipeg (7 p.m., NBCSP).