2015-16 is the first Flyers season where Ed Snider isn’t in the team picture

The Flyers are on an incredible run towards the postseason right now, but one personality who hasn’t been around the Wells Fargo Center much this season is chairman Ed Snider. The man responsible for bringing the NHL to Philadelphia 50 years ago has spent much of the season at his home in California, dealing with health issues. He’s 83 years old.

On Thursday, the Flyers took their annual team photo. It was the 47th team photo they’ve taken, and looking through them all, there is only one constant: Ed Snider.

Until this year, unfortunately.

Let’s all hope he’s well enough to make it next year. Feels weird without him.

With help from the excellent Flyers History dot com, let’s look back at some of the team photos over the years.

Here’s their first team photo, in 1967-68. Mr. Snider is there to the right (our left) of captain Lou Angotti. His glasses are killer.

Here’s the 1973-74 team photo. In the weeks after this photo was taken, this team would win the first ever Stanley Cup in team history:

Here’s 1974-75, with a friend.

my god, the mustaches

Here’s 1979-80, the year of the 35-game unbeaten streak:

1982-83 was the first year the photo was taken in color. It’s also one of the few years where the captain wasn’t in the center of the first row in the photo. New uniforms, too.

1993-94 was one of just two years in team history in which the Flyers wore white in the team photo, the other being 1970-71.

1997-98 was the first season the team wore black in the team photo. They did this a total of five times: 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2007-08. Here’s the 97-98 photo:

In 2005-06 they actually wore these awful third jerseys. This was a pathetic two-year oversight that we will not speak of again.

Here’s the 2009-10 Eastern Conference Championship team:

And here’s 2013-14:

Get well soon, Mr. Snider.