Thomas Takes It Back To Toronto

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 12, 1998 / 11:53 PM EDT / CBS Sportsline

Veteran left wing Steve Thomas, who has 324 goals in his 14-year NHL career, will return to the place where it all began.

Sunday, Thomas signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Terms were not disclosed.

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It was the first off-season free-agent addition for the Maple Leafs, who named Pat Quinn as their new coach on June 26. The Leafs scored more goals than just three teams in the NHL last season.

The 34-year-old Thomas is coming off an injury-plagued season with the New Jersey Devils. He was sidelined for 20 games with a groin strain and four games with bruised ribs and finished with 14 goals and 10 assists in 55 contests. In New Jersey's first-round playoff loss to Ottawa, Thomas had three assists but failed to score a goal.

Thomas, an eight-time 20-goal scorer, originally signed with the Maple Leafs in May of 1984. In 1986-87, he had 35 goals and 27 assists in 78 games for Toronto. Thomas was sent to the Chicago Blackhawks before the start of the 1987-88 season in a major trade involving Rick Vaive, Ed Olczyk and Al Secord.

With Chicago in 1989-90, he reached the 40-goal plateau for the first time and finished with 70 points. During the 1991-92 season, Thomas was sent to the New York Islanders in another major trade involving Brent Sutter and Adam Creighton.

Thomas set a career-high with 42 goals in 1993-94 with the Islanders. The previous year he set personal bests with 50 assists and 87 points for the Islanders.

In October of 1995, the Islanders traded Thomas to the New Jersey Devils in a three-way deal involving Claude Lemieux and Wendel Clark. Thomas scored 26 goals in his first year with the Devils, but his production slipped drastically the last two years.