Alexander Tertyshny hopes he made his dad proud with ‘dream’ week at Flyers camp

Alexander Tertyshny felt enough pain in his side last week that there was some uncertainty if he would be able to play in the scrimmage that concluded Flyers development camp.

He was invited to the camp 24 years after his father, Dmitri Tertyshny, died in a boating accident following his rookie season with the Flyers. Tertyshny, a defenseman like his dad, was born five months after his father’s death and only knew his father from the VHS tapes of Flyers games he watched as a kid and the stories he heard. He keeps a trunk in the closet of his Roxborough bedroom stuffed with his father’s old belongings, including the No. 5 orange and black sweater he wore after making the team as a long-shot rookie.

» READ MORE: How the son of late Flyer Dmitri Tertyshny came to know the dad he never met

Tertyshny’s mother, Polina, was coming that night to Voorhees to watch her son skate in a Flyers jersey just like his father. The pain in his oblique muscle could wait. He had to play.

“We had the morning skate and I said to the trainers, ‘Yeah, I’m OK,’” Tertyshny said. “I wanted to play in that game no matter what. To be able to do that and play in a Flyers uniform with my mom there watching. That was definitely a dream.”

Dmitri came to America in the summer of 1998 with little money as the Russian banks failed while he and his wife were flying. They filled up on free hotel breakfasts in South Jersey and dreamed of making it in the NHL. The Flyers planned to have the 22-year-old Tertyshny play for the minor-league Phantoms, but his wife told him he could change the team’s plans. A few months later, he made the Flyers’ opening-night roster.

“His dad was quiet because it was his first year being over here, but [head coach] Roger Neilson loved him,” said Keith Jones, then a Flyers winger and now the team’s president of hockey operations. “He knew he had something special. To play at that age and play as prominent a role that he did, he was an important part of the future. It was a really difficult time period for all of us. From a hockey perspective, we lost a very good defenseman at such a young age.”

Alexander grew up replaying the tapes of his father’s games, trying to find the times his dad drew a penalty because he knew the camera would focus in on his father’s face. He watched Dmitri’s first goal and his first shift. And he watched him share the ice with players like Jones, John LeClair, and Chris Therien.

So imagine the thrill when Tertyshny skated last week in Voorhees while his father’s old teammates were watching.

“It was amazing,” he said.

Tertyshny reached out to the Flyers earlier this year to tell them he was transferring to Stonehill College, a Division I program in Easton, Mass. Perhaps they could keep an eye on him and invite him next summer to development camp if they liked what they saw. The Flyers had other plans.

“They said how about now,” Tertyshny said.

The five-day camp was mostly made up of recent draft picks, many of whom the team hopes can become key pieces of the next contending Flyers team as they begin a rebuilding process. Tertyshny was one of 13 players the team invited who are not under contract.

He turns 24 in January — slightly older than the average NHL rookie — and hardly played the last two seasons because of an injury and his decision to transfer schools. Like his father more than 20 years ago, Tertyshny is a long shot. But his dad proved that those odds can be beaten.

“His dad would be so proud of him,” Jones said. “He’s a talented hockey player, but more importantly, he’s just a terrific human being. We’ll be following closely, for sure. Just to get to know him gives you all the reasons to follow him. He’s just a really nice young man. He does have a gift. He’s a good hockey player. So we’ll keep an eye on him.”

Tertyshny, like his father, dreams of reaching the NHL, but he’s not focusing on that now. He just wants to have a strong season at Stonehill and then see what happens. Maybe he’ll go play again in Russia for the team in his dad’s old hometown of Chelyabinsk, like he did a few seasons ago. Maybe he’ll grab the attention of an NHL team.

The young defenseman thought he held his own last week with the Flyers and he learned things that he’ll take with him to college. He could feel his father’s presence all week.

“I just hope that he’s proud of me,” Tertyshny said.

» READ MORE: Development camp takeaways: Emil Andrae, Bobby Brink make their cases, Cutter Gauthier absent

He left the camp with his own Flyers jersey and confidence about his play. And he had the chance to talk to several of his father’s teammates. Tertyshny, whenever he sees an ex-Flyer, tries to pluck a story from him about his dad. It’s how he feels like he has been able to know his father without ever meeting him. Therien said he wants to take Alexander out and talk to him about his dad.

Tertyshny gutted through some pain to play in a Flyers jersey like his father. Soon, he’ll get to know him a little more.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Tertyshny said.