Things are very quiet right now around the Flyers. There is nothing new to pass along in regard to the status of the Flyers completing a contract with Morgan Frost, their final restricted free agent. The annual Community Caravan kicked off this past week in various shore town in South Jersey and will resume on Aug. 8 in Ridley Township. USA Hockey's World Junior Summer Showcase kicks off on July 27 with games staring two days later. Matvei Michkov is in training camp with SKA St. Petersburg but is not slated to play in the upcoming preseason games.
Beyond that, we're entering the hockey version of the dog days of summer. This evening Jason Myrtetus and I will record the weekly Mondays with Meltzer edition of Flyers Daily (I'll post the link tomorrow). Meanwhile, today in Flyers history on July 23....
*1985: The Flyers sign power forward Carl Mokosak as a free agent. The rugged former Calgary Flames winger went on to dress for one game for the Flyers in 1985-86 but had a very strong AHL campaign with the Hershey Bears (30 goals, 72 points, 312 penalty minutes in 79 games). Under head coach John Paddock, the Bears would go on reach the Calder Cup Final before losing a hard-fought six-game series to Bill Dineen's Adirondack Red Wings.
* 1997: The Flyers sign 28-year-old unrestricted free agent defenseman Luke Richardson to five-year contract. He'd go on to play 387 regular season games (seven goals, 35 points, 618 penalty minutes, +59) and 34 playoff games (0g, 1a, 49 PIM, -12) for the Flyers from 1997-98 to 2001-02. Richardson's best season as a Flyer came in 1999-2000 under Roger Neilson and Craig Ramsay, as he won the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Award after being placed on (and clearing) waivers in early October and went on to reclaim a regular starting lineup spot. The next season, under Ramsy and then Bill Barber, Richardson averaged a Flyers career-high 20:42 of ice time while dressing in every game.
* 2005: With the year-long NHL lockout finally over and a salary cap being implemented leaguewide, the Flyers buy out the contracts of John LeClair and Tony Amonte in order to be compliant with the new cap.
* 2007: The Flyers sign 2006 first-round pick Claude Giroux to an entry-level contract. On the same day, the club signs goaltender Brian Boucher to an AHL contract with the Philadelphia Phantoms. Boucher, who had three separate NHL playing stints with the Flyers (1999-2000 to 2001-02, 2009-10 to 2010-11, and then a portion of 2012-13) did not suit up for the parent club in this stint but able to parlay strong play into an NHL return as a member of the San Jose Sharks.
* 2021: In the hours leading up the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, the Flyers trade their 2021 first-round pick (14th overall), their 2023 second-round pick and NHL roster defenseman Robert Hà¤gg to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Rasmus Ristolainen. An impending unrestricted agent the next summer, Ristolainen would later preemptively sign a five-year contract extension through the 2026-27 season. In exchange for a longer term, Ristolainen agreed to a lower cap hit ($5.1 million) as opposed to the $5.4 million from his expired deal originally signed in Buffalo in 2016.
* July 23 Flyers Alumni birthday: Defenseman Randy Jones was born in July 23, 1971, in Quispamsis, New Brunswick.
Unselected in the NHL draft, the Cobourg Cougars (OPJHL) product began playing collegiate hockey at age 20 at Clarkson University. A two-way standout in the ECAC, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Jones signed with the Flyers as a free agent on July 24, 2003, bringing his college hockey career to an end before his junior season.
Although he had a five-game cup of coffee in the NHL with the Flyers during the 2003-04 regular season, Jones spent most of two-plus seasons in the American Hockey League with the Philadelphia Phantoms. The defenseman was a regular starter on the 2004-05 Phantoms squad that won the Calder Cup championship.
Jones was not the fleetest of skaters but was a good passer and generally reliable containment defender capable of being a viable third-pairing defenseman in the National Hockey League. After playing 28 regular season games for the Flyers in 2005-06, he staked down a full-time spot in the NHL for the next several years.
Jones' best season came in 2007-08, when he dressed in 71 regular season games (five goals, 26 assists, 31 points, plus-eight rating, 58 penalty minutes, 20:01 average ice time) and 16 playoff games for a Flyers team that came within three wins of reaching the Stanley Cup Final. Never known as a dirty player, Jones served a two-game suspension that season for a hit from behind on Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron with Bergeron in a vulnerable position. The uncharacteristic play branded Jones as a villain whenever the Flyers subsequently played in Boston.
In 2008-09, after signing a two-year contract extension, a hip injury (torn labrum) cost Jones much of the first half of the season. He missed the first 32 games. The defenseman ultimately dressed in 47 games in the regular season (four goals, four assists, eight points, 22 penalty minutes, 19:08 average ice time) and all six of the Flyers' playoff games in an Eastern Conference Quarterfinals loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He underwent hip surgery after the season.
The Flyers placed Jones on waivers shortly before the 2009-10 season. He cleared but was subsequently claimed on re-entry waivers by the Los Angeles Kings on October 29, 2009. Jones played until the 2013-14 season, including NHL stints with the Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning and Winnipeg Jets as his final total of NHL matches reached 365 regular season games (20 goals, 85 assists, 105 points, 185 penalty minutes) and 31 Stanley Cup playoff appearances (zero goals, four assists, four points, eight penalty minutes).
* In memoriam: Larry Mickey. On July 23, 1982, former Flyers forward Larry Mickey tragically took in his own life amid a deep depression in both his personal and professional lives. He was 38.
* In memoriam: Dmitri Tertyshny, On July 23, 1999, the 22-year-old Flyers defenseman tragically perished in a horrific boating accident. After his rookie NHL season, Tertyshny and Flyers minor league prospects Mikhail Chernov and Francis Belanger attended a summer power skating camp in Kelowna, British Columbia. Taking a break from camp, they decided to go out for some boating late in the afternoon of July 23, 1999.
With Belanger piloting the rental boat, the other passengers were seated aboard the 17-foot vessel. At about 7:25 pm, the boat hit a steep wave and Tertyshny, kneeling on a seat on the bow, was thrown overboard.
His friends watched in horror and anguish as the 22-year-old was run over by the power boat's propeller, which slashed his neck and jugular vein. Bleeding uncontrollably, an unconscious Tertyshny was brought back onboard as the boat returned to shore and an emergency crew arrived three minutes later. The young player was rushed to Kelowna General Hospital, but it was already too late. He bled to death at around 7:30 p.m. while still on the boat.
Today, Dmtri's son, Alexander, proudly carries on his dad's hockey legacy. Aleks, who was born and primarily raised in Philadelphia, will play collegiate hockey in 2023-24 for Stonehill College. He recently attended the Flyers' 2023 development camp at the invitation of Keith Jones.
24 years â¤ï¸ pic.twitter.com/t9oTM31Pfl
— Alexander Tertyshny (@alekstertyshny) July 23, 2023