He has not been back in 17 years. Not since they brought him out to East Rutherford to drop the puck for the home opener of the 1995-96 season, the one right after the New Jersey Devils won their first Stanley Cup. Patrick Warburton remembers standing in a hallway near the ice at the Brendan Byrne Arena and laughing to himself when the public address announcer introduced him as "from the cast of 'Seinfeld.'" At the time, he'd appeared in only two episodes. Warburton was a young actor. He was not Jerry, George, Kramer or Elaine.

He...