KARLSSON TRADE CREATES ANOTHER NHL SUPER TEAM.

Karlsson trade creates another NHL super team

You can put away the talk about parity for a moment. An expansion team might have fluked its way into the Stanley Cup final last year. But any lessons learned from the Vegas Golden Knights and how their blue-collar roster of third-liners and castoffs was able to topple the goliaths of the NHL appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

Starting this season, the NHL is entering the era of the super teams.

Technically, it started at last year’s trade deadline when the Tampa Bay Lightning added Ryan Mcdonagh and J.T. Miller to a team already stacked with multiple all-stars. The Toronto Maple Leafs then upped the ante this summer by signing John Tavares on July 1.

And now this: Erik Karlsson is a member of the San Jose Sharks.

Yes, a team that went to the final in 2016 and already had Brent Burns and MarcEdouard Vlasic on the back end just added a two-time Norris Trophy winner who was regarded as a top-three player in the world at this time last year. And the best part was that they gave up the equivalent of a handful of magic beans for him.

If you’re Edmonton’s Connor Mcdavid or Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau, the path out of the Pacific Division just got a whole lot more difficult.

“It’s extremely rare that players of this calibre become available,” GM Doug Wilson said in a statement. “The word ‘elite’ is often thrown around casually, but Erik’s skill set and abilities fit that description like few other players in today’s game. With Erik, Brent Burns and MarcEdouard Vlasic, we feel we have three of the NHL’S top defencemen and stand as a better team today than we were yesterday.”

Indeed, the only roster players the Sharks lost in Thursday’s trade were a thirdline centre (Chris Tierney) and third-pairing defenceman (Dylan Demelo). They still have forwards Evander Kane, Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Joe Thornton, as well as a goalie in Martin Jones who won 30 games and had a 2.55 goals-against average last season.

This wasn’t supposed to happen when the NHL first introduced the salary cap in 2005. Having a fixed budget was supposed to prevent teams from loading up with the best players in the league. Every team was supposed to share in the wealth.

Instead, it’s interesting to see how the stars keep lining up these days. From Tavares joining the Leafs to Karlsson now ending up in San Jose, the league is quickly being divided between the haves and have-nots.

Even Vegas has gotten into the action, signing Paul Stastny in the summer then trading for Max Pacioretty lastweek.

And we’re just getting started.

While Tyler Seguin resigned in Dallas on Thursday, next year’s crop of free agents is a who’s who of allstars, award winners and future Hall of Famers. Columbus’ Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky could both be available, as could Ottawa’s Mark Stone and Matt Duchene and Nashville’s Pekka Rinne, along with Karlsson if he does not re-sign with the Sharks before then.

If they’re not already talking among themselves, they should. Like the NBA, the days when a no-frills team such as Carolina won a championship are all but over. As we saw last year in the playoffs with Washington and with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017, you need star players to have success in the NHL. And one or two won’t do anymore.

That’ s not going to change now that players seem to be willing to leave money on the table for the betterment of the team.

The reason Karlsson ended up on the trade market obviously begins and ends with Eugene Melnyk, who (to borrow a phrase from the Senators owner) turned the team into a “dumpster.” But the reason he ended up in San Jose was because Thornton, who had earned US$8 million in 2017-18, took $3 million less this year in hopes of landing either Tavares or Karlsson.

“It shows that I’m someone that they want, so I’m taking it like that,” Karlsson, who refused to speculate on signing an extension with the Sharks, said. “I think it’s going to be an extremely competitive team. The culture they have there is a winning culture.”

It wasn’t just San Jose where players are taking less in order for management to add more to the roster.

Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman left some money on the table in

ITSHOWSTHAT I’M SOMEONE THEY WANT, SO I’M TAKING ITLIKETHAT.

order to make room for Nikita Kucherov, who re-signed with the Lightning this summer. And Tavares, who reportedly was offered $13 million per season with the Sharks, signed in Toronto for $2 million less per year to help allow the team to keep around William Nylander, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

After all, it takes sacrifice to win a Stanley Cup — on and off the ice.

Pierre Dorion