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The Sharks landed their big fish.
Less than 24 hours before the start of training camp, San Jose acquired defenseman Erik Karlsson (and AHL striker Francis Perron) in a massive exchange with the Ottawa Senators. The Sharks paid a high price for the double winner of the Norris Trophy, sending two players, two hopes, a first-round pick in 2020, a second-round pick in 2019 and a conditional selection in Ottawa.
Let's not be buried here: The Sharks have probably acquired the best hockey defenseman, finishing in the top three of Karlsson, the winner of the 2017 Norris Trophy, Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Few, if any, teams have this level of talent at the top of their blue line.
"It's extremely rare for players of this caliber to become available," Sharks chief executive Doug Wilson said in a statement. "The word" elite "is often used casually, but Erik 's skills and abilities match this description, as few other players in the game today."
Since joining the NHL in 2009, Karlsson has scored 96 points more than the nearest defenseman (Keith Yandle) and 117 more than Burns.
To give up on Norris could sting, but acquiring Karlsson without losing Timo Meier or their first-round pick in 2018 is a flawless victory for the Sharks and General Manager Doug Wilson. San Jose will have to find internal options to replace third-row center Chris Tierney, who has just had a career year, and defenseman Dylan DeMelo. But with Antti Suomela, the top scorer in the Finnish league last season and Tim Heed waiting behind the scenes, the Sharks could afford to do that.
Wilson is no stranger to making the big move and, like our own Ray Ratto wrote, 13 years ago, the shades of the acquisition of Joe Thornton by the Bruins. The Sharks paid a few cents (well, maybe quarters in this case) on the dollar for one of the best players in the league, and made it clear that Thornton's career would stop.
And in the process, they landed firmly in the Stanley Cup conversation.
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