Bjork played three seasons at Notre Dame, leaving in 2017 and joining the Bruins for 30 games before a shoulder injury ended his season Jan. 30. He made an impression (12 points; four goals, eight assists) that will enable him to compete for a top-six role this coming season.
And nothing stands to be quite as enticing than the possibility of skating at Notre Dame.
"I think it's been extra motivation for me this summer to work extra hard and come back strong," said Bjork, who is on target with his recovery from shoulder surgery. "Because playing in that would be such a fantastic experience for me. I don't know if I've been more looking forward to playing in a game yet."
Bjork has even gotten a glimpse of exactly what a game in South Bend might look like. When he was playing for the United States National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he and a couple of teammates got tickets for the 2014 Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium.
"That atmosphere was absolutely electric, so I think it will be that same quality, if not even a little more electric than that, because of the venue and the teams playing," he said.
Though Notre Dame Stadium has yet to host hockey, it is one of college football's most storied venues, one where Bjork experienced some of the most memorable times of his college career. He and his hockey teammates sat in the student section, watching their classmates and friends on the field.
They looked up at the stadium and wondered how incredible it might be to play there, with that many faces watching down on them. It was a surreal thought.
It still seems a bit surreal for Bjork.
"It's going to be crazy to play in front of that many people and at that stadium that I've watched a lot of games at, but never really thought it would even be possible to play in that venue," he said.
When the game was made official, Bjork said most of his teammates approached him, asking questions about the university, the stadium and the atmosphere. He was surprised, he said, by how thrilled they seemed, though some of them have already played in a Winter Classic. The Bruins played the Philadelphia Flyers at Fenway Park in 2010 and the Montreal Canadiens at Gillette Stadium in 2016.
"It's going to be something special, kind of a throwback to something when you were a kid skating on a lake," Bruins forward David Pastrnak said during the NHL European Player Media Tour in Stockholm last week. "So it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm excited for that."
