In response, the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest rival for this year’s Eastern Conference Title seem to be acquiring Erik Karlsson.
It’s hard to gauge how they’re doing in the arms race when we don’t know for sure whether or not they’re actually going to pull this off, and, if they do, what it will cost.
But here is what we do know: It doesn’t matter.
The addition of Karlsson will make the Lightning better. No doubt. A defense that features Victor Hedman, Mikhail Sergachev, Ryan McDonagh and Erik Karlsson is very impressive. For star power, that’s even better than Nashville and it will make other ‘best defenses in the NHL’ like Anaheim, Arizona and Carolina look bad by comparison.