IRVINE — Rookie center Sam Steel couldn’t practice Friday because of a mid-body injury and might not be available to play Saturday against the San Jose Sharks, Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. Devin Shore could move into Steel’s spot, skating with wingers Rickard Rakell and Jakob Silfverberg.

If he was concerned about filling Steel’s spot, Eakins didn’t show it.

“I don’t think it’s anything major, but we’ll wait and see,” Eakins said.

Shore is nothing if not versatile and Eakins said he felt comfortable using him in any of the three forward positions. Shore played on the left wing, forming an effective line with center Derek Grant and right wing Carter Rowney during the Ducks’ season-opening win over Arizona on Thursday night at Honda Center.

In fact, the Shore-Grant-Rowney line played as if they were the Ducks’ top line in their 2-1 victory over the Coyotes. Shore assisted on Grant’s first-period goal and Rowney set up defenseman Cam Fowler’s tiebreaking score in the second.

Eakins kept tapping Shore, Grant and Rowney on the shoulders and they kept responding with energetic play, creating scoring chances and making life difficult for Coyotes defenders and goaltender Darcy Kuemper. Grant played 16:35, the most ice time of any of the Ducks’ four centers.

Steel played the fewest minutes (14:12), but that might have been because of an injury that Eakins described as similar to the one that sidelined the 21-year-old for a healthy portion of training camp. Ryan Getzlaf played only 15:15 and Adam Henrique played 15:42.

“The way your forward lines are, you’re going to have to do this by committee,” Eakins said Saturday when asked about the bottom-heavy minutes given to Grant, the Ducks’ fourth-line center. “We’re going to have to score goals by committee and we’re going to have to check by committee.

“That line has been going for us all through camp, not only with Devin Shore, Grant and Rowney, but with ‘Des’ (Nicolas Deslauriers), too. We’re going to need all four of our lines every night. We can’t just resort to, ‘Hey, we’re going to play these guys because they have the most experience.’

“We’re looking to win the game first and foremost, and I know our team is fully behind that.”

Eakins said he doesn’t concern himself with line designations, and that certainly was the case in Thursday’s game against the Coyotes. Grant’s line played first-line minutes and Getzlaf’s line got something less than top-line ice time.

“I haven’t even thought of it that way for years,” Eakins said when asked about putting his lines in a consistent pecking order. “That’s more of people putting lines in a box sometimes. For me, we have four lines and on a lot of nights, I’m not going to know who is No. 1 or who’s No. 4.”

MONEY MATTERS

The Ducks’ opening-night payroll was $74,132,516, the third-lowest in the 31-team NHL, according to figures compiled by the website capfriendly.com. They were $7,447,565 below the league’s $81.5-million salary-cap limit for 2019-20.

Only the Columbus Blue Jackets ($72,824,082) and the Ottawa Senators ($70,932,485) had lower opening-night payrolls than the Ducks, who were at or near the NHL’s salary-cap limit for many of the past few seasons, including in 2018-19.

Ducks general manager Bob Murray gained salary-cap relief in the amount of $2.625 million by buying out Corey Perry of his contract this past offseason. In addition, Murray could place Ryan Kesler and Patrick Eaves on long-term injured reserve and save another $10.025 million.

Kesler (hip surgery) and Eaves (illness) are out for the season.

ROSTER MAKEUP

For all the emphasis on the Ducks’ youthful opening-night lineup, Steel was the only actual rookie in uniform, per the NHL’s rules. However, Eakins did ice a lineup with six players 23 or younger, with the 23-year-old Ondrej Kase the oldest of the Ducks’ youth movement.