NHL draft 2015: A complete history of players chosen with the No. 7 overall pick

The Philadelphia Flyers have picked in the top 10 of the NHL draft just three times in the last 15 years: Sean Couturier at No. 8 in 2011, James van Riemsdyk at No. 2 in 2007, and Joni Pitkanen at No. 4 in 2002. This year they’ll have the opportunity to do it again, as they hold the No. 7 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft.

That got us thinking: what does the No. 7 pick look like historically? So with help from Hockey Reference, we’ve compiled a list of every No. 7 pick in NHL history. A few notes:

• The Flyers have held this pick three times: in 1972, when they selected future Hall of Famer Bill Barber, in 1978 when they selected Ken Linseman, and in 1992 when they selected Ryan Sittler.
• Barber and Linseman were both wonderful picks for the Flyers. Sittler … didn’t turn out so well. He’s one of just six players in history to be selected at No. 7 overall to never play an NHL game. Four of those guys were taken in the first six NHL drafts in history — 1963, 1964, 1967 and 1968 — and the other, Haydn Fleury, was selected last year by the Hurricanes and will probably go on to have an NHL career sooner than later.
• Sittler never became an NHL player largely due to injuries, so it’s unfair to really pin the blame on the Flyers there. Still, even with the benefit of hindsight and context, it’s not great to look at the below chart and realize that the worst-ever No. 7 overall pick was made by Philadelphia.
• The best ever No. 7 overall pick? It could very well be Barber. If not, it’s probably Bernie Federko, selected by the Blues at No. 7 in 1976. Both are Hockey Hall of Famers.
• There haven’t been too many busts at No. 7, all things considered. Jack Skille, selected by Chicago in 2005, is probably the most recent guy, but all told, the average number of NHL games played by No. 7 picks is 505. Remove the handful of guys who have played less than 10 NHL games from that list and the average jumps up significantly.