For 15 years since trading him away, the Bruins only had to see Joe Thornton once or twice a year while he played for the San Jose Sharks.
They might be seeing him a little more this season.
The division rival Toronto Maple Leafs announced Friday afternoon that they have signed the 41-year-old Thornton to a one-year deal worth $700,000.
Thornton is far from the player he was during his prime, as his 31 points in 70 games last season were his fewest since his rookie season with the Bruins in 1997-98, when he was 18 years old.
Still, he provides some cheap veteran depth and leadership to a Maple Leafs team whose young, talented core is looking to take the next step and become a serious Stanley Cup contender.
Thornton is currently in Switzerland, where he recently signed on to play with HC Davos -- the same team he played for during the NHL's 2004-05 and 2012 lockouts -- during the NHL offseason. Thornton and the Sharks didn't make the playoffs this past season, so he hadn't played a game since March.
After being drafted first overall in 1997, Thornton played nearly seven and a half seasons in Boston before the infamous 2005 trade that sent him to San Jose for Marco Sturm, Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart.
Thornton won the Hart Trophy as league MVP the year he was traded after putting up a league-leading 96 assists and 125 points. He led the league in assists two more times and was consistently among the NHL's scoring leaders for the next decade.
Thornton has not yet won a Stanley Cup, though. He came closest in 2016, when the Sharks lost to the Penguins in six games in the Cup Final.
He'll hope to get a chance to win one with the Leafs, but it's possible that could mean a playoff series against the Bruins along the way.
It's also possible Boston and Toronto won't be in the same division this season, though, as the NHL is exploring the possibility of putting the seven Canadian teams in one division for one year only in an effort to limit cross-border travel in the middle of a pandemic.
