Since the Philadelphia Flyers have come into existence in the NHL, they have pretty much chosen Canadian or American born players with their first round picks. That was the Flyers way. In fact, it wasn’t until 1991 when the team selected Peter Forsberg from Sweden that Philly finally selected a European player with their first round pick.
Since Forsberg, the Flyers have selected, with their first rounder: Dainius Zubrus of Lithuania in 1996, Joni Pitkanen from Finland in 2002, Luca Sbisa from Italy in 2008, Ivan Provorov from Russia in 2014, and German Rubtsov from Russia in 2016.