Philadelphia Flyers winger Jakub Voracek has finally become the star that the Columbus Blue Jackets envisioned he would develop into when they drafted him in the first round in 2007.
He's still searching for his first win as a visitor against his first NHL team, though he shined the last time he played at Nationwide Arena.
Voracek will be one of several former Blue Jackets on the ice for the Flyers when they try to end a five-game slide at Columbus on Friday night.
The Blue Jackets (23-26-3) made Voracek the seventh overall selection in 2007, and he was part of the franchise's first playoff appearance as a rookie in 2008-09. But he clashed with former Columbus coach Scott Arniel and was traded to the Flyers on June 23, 2011.
Playing on a line with star captain Claude Giroux, Voracek is tied for second in the NHL with 59 points - three shy of his career high set last season. He has 12 points in eight games against his former team with five in three meetings this season, though Philadelphia (23-22-9) is 0-2-1 in his visits to Nationwide Arena.
Voracek last played there in the NHL All-Star game Jan. 25, tallying six points to match an event record set by Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux in 1988.
He'll be joined on the ice by former Blue Jackets R.J. Umberger and Nick Schultz.
Umberger began his career with Philadelphia and then played for Columbus over the previous six seasons before he was dealt to the Flyers in the offseason for Scott Hartnell. Schultz played nine games for the Blue Jackets last season after he was acquired from Edmonton.
"It was a great experience here, it's a good group of guys here in Columbus," Schultz said. "They work hard, it's a really hard-working team."
One former Columbus player who won't be available is goaltender Steve Mason, who suffered a bizarre injury during a timeout in Sunday's 3-1 victory at Washington that resulted in knee surgery.
That means Ray Emery will likely get the nod. Emery has surrendered 10 goals in losing both career starts at Columbus, where the Flyers are 0-4-1 in five visits after going 2-0-0 with two ties in their first four.
The Blue Jackets will start Curtis McElhinney, who is 3-1-0 with a 3.27 goals-against average in four starts against Philadelphia.
Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn feels confident he will return after he sat out Tuesday's 2-1 overtime loss at Montreal with an upper-body injury.
"I feel pretty good and felt surprisingly pretty good waking up this morning and in practice," Schenn told the Flyers' official website. "So I should be fine and ready to go tomorrow."
The Blue Jackets failed to win their third straight Monday with a 4-3 home defeat to Los Angeles. Hartnell scored for the third straight game, and he has six points in a four-game run.
"Those one-goal games mean a lot when you lose them and you want to be on the other side of it," forward Matt Calvert told the Blue Jackets' official website. "It's tough to play desperate everyday, but we got ourselves into this hole and it's our jobs to get ourselves out of it."
These teams are among the NHL's best on the power play, with the Flyers at 23.6 percent and Blue Jackets at 22.8.
