TORONTO – Paul Kariya jokes that once Nov. 20 rolls around, you won’t see him again. But is he joking?

Privacy is a currency Kariya holds dear in the seven years since he played his final NHL game with St. Louis. The former star and longtime captain of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim has simply lived a life outside hockey, with surfing and mountain-based sports becoming his passion.

It is a life that filled with happiness, especially so since the anger has subsided after a sixth concussion forced him to pull the plug on a prolific career that wasn’t supposed to end at that time. Surely not end in that fashion.

So it has been is a sight to not only see Kariya out in the public eye again but see an ever-present smile on his face in the time leading to up his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame and this weekend’s accompanying festivities that culminate with the official ceremony Monday night.

If those concussions hadn’t put his focus on recovering his health, Kariya might still be playing regularly. He certainly would have had more years in the league he once commanded. Trim and fit as he was in his salad days, the 43-year-old ate up every moment of Sunday’s Legends Classic at Air Canada Centre.

It was the first time Kariya had been on skates since he retired. Getting back on them was like riding a bike. Cobbling together equipment was harder – he still had his helmet from the Blues days – but his goal against longtime Ducks teammate Jean-Sebastien Giguere showed the slick hands never left him.

“It was nice to see Paul out there with a smile on his face,” said Giguere, who was playfully mugged by the winger after a glove save against him.

Kariya started out opposing sides with Teemu Selanne as it was Mark Messier’s Canada-based team against Jari Kurri’s World squad. But for the second and final 20 minutes, it was Kariya who switched jerseys and joined up with Selanne.

There was no other way it should have played out. The two, stars that made the Mighty Ducks relevant in their early days, are going into the Hall side by side.

“Sometimes things happen for a reason,” said Lanny McDonald, the Hall’s chairman and himself a member as a player. “I’m not sure why Kariya wasn’t in before. For them to go in together, being the dynamic duo they’ve been for years and years. It’s pretty cool and probably fitting.”

“Perfect,” Kurri said. “There’s no question about that. That’s the way it should be.”

Kariya scored that goal off a between-the-legs drop pass from Selanne. He’d long contended that Selanne was horribly underrated as a playmaker because the 684 goals got the attention. Afterward, the two – seemingly joined at the hip the entire weekend – beamed as cameras caught every moment.

“Obviously we have a great history together,” Selanne said. “The game and playing with him was so easy. We were both so fast and we can both score and pass. I thought we were one step ahead of everybody else. Just great memories.”

Said Kariya: “A dream come true to play with Teemu again and get a goal together. It was awesome.”

For a few days here, Kariya is back in the spotlight that he’s long avoided. His feeling is that light should be shined on those currently playing. But he has been comfortable in it, with Selanne there to rib at every chance.

Still, it was the atmosphere of being in a locker room and putting on his gear that brought it all back. Doing this alongside other Hall of Famers and contemporaries.

“Those are the things that you miss when you stop playing,” Kariya said. “The camaraderie that you have in the dressing room. Those moments before games or before practice where you’re joking around.

“Lanny came in and gave us a riot act after the first period. Brought back a lot of memories through the years. It was awesome.”

There was also a moment that brought forth a memory Kariya doesn’t recall. Scott Stevens shook his hand after the winger received his honorary Hall of Fame blazer with the other honorees. And he reached out and tapped Kariya on the leg as he found a seat on the bench next to the defenseman, a 2007 inductee.

Had time healed an old wound, if at least for that public moment? Stevens and Kariya, of course, will be linked by Game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final, with Stevens laying out Kariya at center ice and the winger lying motionless as a stunned sellout crowd at then-Arrowhead Pond wondered if he would, or could, get up at all.

Kariya did, albeit with assistance. The rest is Ducks lore, with the winger returning to action and ripping a third-period slap shot past New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur. The sight of Kariya and his primal roar after blowing the roof off the arena remains a signature moment, except it is one he doesn’t remember.

Nor does he remember playing in the subsequent Game 7 won by the Devils. That is part of the damage done from the concussions. The devastating Stevens hit causing one. The two, who also shook hands after Sunday’s game, haven’t talked about that in the years since.

“That’s the first time I saw him,” Kariya said. “Scott’s a Hall of Fame player and one of the best defensemen of all time. Honered to be on the ice with him. I don’t know how I got stuck playing defense at the start of the game.

“My legs weren’t really up to it. I was glad I got to play forward on the other team.”

Eventually those concussions added up, forcing him to give up the game he loved. Waking up in the hospital, now knowing how you get there is a painful memory. “You’re not a happy person, of course,” he said.

“When you see them and see what happened, anger isn’t a strong enough word for that was going through me at that time,” said Kariya, getting into the subject over a recent lunch with Selanne. “But, with most things, with time and perspective now it’s seven years since I’ve retired. I don’t look back.

“If I’m looking back on my career, I look back on all the great memories that I had playing. Sitting in a room in New York and just shooting the [stuff]. … Yeah, there was a lot of anger. For sure. But again, I just wanted to get healthy.

“Once I got healthy, I started feeling good. Started feeling like myself again. And then I’m moving on, enjoying my life.”

Selanne says this weekend is closure for Kariya, who readily refutes that assertion from his longtime friend. It could be argued that Sunday could serve as that for Ducks fans, who’ll have the chance to show Kariya what he meant to the franchise when the two are honored for their Hall induction.

Kariya has famously kept a low profile, with his only reported sighting at a Ducks game in his retirement being Selanne’s final regular-season home game in 2014. But he has gradually come back, often doing charitable causes for the team. Selanne, whose No. 8 was retired in early 2015, wants to fulfill one wish many have.

“We start planning that No. 9 in the rafters,” Selanne jokes. “I’m on the committee.”

That’ll be up to Kariya. As is his involvement in hockey and the NHL, to which he never says never, but admits it would be tough to ignore the waves outside his beachside home. “If I was going to do something, it’d have to be 100 percent,” Kariya said.

Travis Green, a close friend and the Vancouver Canucks coach, knows that. Green also knows how much Kariya could offer just from his wealth of knowledge.

“I don’t want to speak for Paul,” Green said. “He’s got a great hockey mind. I know I enjoy talking hockey with him. From all different angles, he’d be a great addition to any organization in the NHL. But it’s a big commitment.

“He also knows that if he ever decides to go in that direction, you can’t be halfway in. That’s not Paul’s style. He’s an all-in guy, he gives you everything he has whether it’s as a hockey player or a friend. Whatever he does in his life.”

Maybe the day will come where Kariya gets back into hockey. Or maybe he’s enjoying the spotlight for this stretch of time and simply being appreciative of all who enjoyed watching him excel. And then it will be time to go back to what he has done, spend time doing the things he loves with his friends without the fanfare and the fuss.

“Because he lives a life that’s just a so-called private life and is not in the spotlight, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Green said. “He lives a great life and he’s happy. That’s part of living.”