VOORHEES, N.J. — The Flyers expected Jakob Pelletier to bring his youthful exuberance to their lineup.
How about reading their lineup?
That's what John Tortorella had the 23-year-old do before the Flyers' 6-3 win last Saturday over the Oilers. It was Pelletier's Flyers debut, which the winger had to wait over three weeks for after being acquired in a trade with the Flames.
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"I wanted him a part of the room," Tortorella said Tuesday, "and he jumped right in, that's for damn sure."
Pelletier admitted he didn't give the cleanest read in front of his new teammates.
"He kind of caught me by surprise a little bit with that, but it was great just to get right into it," he said Tuesday. "I kind of messed up at one point, so it was funny, but it was great."
With the Flyers, Pelletier has a chance to audition for the team's future. He's a pending restricted free agent and trying to carve out an everyday role in the NHL. The 2019 first-round pick came up with a scoring background. In his first two AHL seasons, he recorded 99 points (43 goals, 56 assists) over 101 games.
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At the NHL level, he'll have to prove he can be effective in a bottom-six role. It doesn't hurt that the 5-foot-9, 170-pounder plays with a bottom-six motor.
"It's an energy guy, he's a guy that's trying to find his footing in the National Hockey League, trying to become a full-fledged National Hockey Leaguer," Tortorella said. "When you get a player like that in a short stint of games, of 20-plus here, the last quarter of the season, I think it gives him a really good chance to show what he is. I think we have him at a good time. We've changed our lineup, we've had injuries, we've moved people around."
The Flyers have 24 games to go and they're trying to make things interesting in the wild-card race. They host the Penguins on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP) and Pelletier will get his second look on the Flyers' fourth line with Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway.
"I've got to figure out who he is," Tortorella said. "He's not that big, he kind of falls in between in a lot of situations here. He's not a great scorer, but can add some checking and maybe bang some in. Not really big to be a really big checker for us. And I think that's where he has found himself in his career.
"I want to see how he acts as he plays a number of games and watch him through momentums of games. I think he could be a guy that can add some juice to us when we need just a boost."
Before making his Flyers debut, Pelletier went 22 days without playing, a layoff caused by visa issues and the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Tortorella had him start against Edmonton. Pelletier was just happy to be playing again.
"It was so long," he said. "Especially when you're healthy and you can't play and you watch games, it kind of sucks more."
Being in a contract year, Pelletier hasn't thought about what's next. He doesn't view the final 24 games as an opportunity for just him.
"I think we can achieve a big goal, I think we can put ourself into a playoff spot," Pelletier said. "It's not just about me, it's about the whole team. If we play like we did last game, I think everything's going to be all right.
"Just trying to go out and play hard, win games and we'll see what's going to happen after."
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