VANCOUVER, British Columbia — This was a monumental weekend for hockey in the New York area, and most of the spotlight deservedly landed on the western side of the Hudson River.

Devils general manager Ray Shero continued his star-studded run by getting electric defenseman P.K. Subban in a blockbuster trade with the Predators on Saturday, sending back Steve Santini, Jeremy Davies, and two second-round picks.

It seemed like a bit of a steal, but Nashville needed to shed some salary, while New Jersey was able to assume all of Subban’s $9 million annual salary-cap hit over the next three seasons.

This came just one day after Shero took 18-year-old American center Jack Hughes with the No. 1-overall pick in the draft, just two years after he took Swiss center Nico Hischier with another top-overall pick and just three years after the draft in which he stole Taylor Hall in a trade with the Oilers. It has enlivened a franchise that missed the playoffs for six of their previous seven years following their appearance in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.

Even Shero did not shy away from the word he has bestowed back on this proud franchise — relevance.

“It’s great for our market, it’s great for the Devils franchise,” Shero said. “I think in our area, we deserve to have a Jack Hughes and Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, now P.K. Subban — we’ll be relevant. It’s an entertainment business. That’s what it’s about.”

Rest assured, the Rangers and No. 2-overall selection Kaapo Kakko heard that.

But there are few in the history of the game who have been as attention-grabbing as Subban, the 2013 Norris Trophy winner who carries a polarizing personality for his flair both on and off the ice. That is not lost on Shero, and not something the franchise is shying away from.

“To me, personality is great,” Shero said. “P.K. Subban is a great kid. He’s got personality, enthusiasm — I call it enthusiasm. And I like that. I think freshness is good.”

Shero shared a story from about a decade ago, when he had young children and they were enamored of Subban, a bubbly figure they had seen on television. Subban spent so much time playing with them that it left a deep impression.

“My kids never forgot that,” Shero said. “That’s the impact you can have on people.”

Subban, 30, is known for philanthropic work, both in Nashville and from his seven years in Montreal. But his presence also has rubbed people the wrong way at times, and that eventually wore thin with the Canadiens. Despite Montreal general manager Marc Bergevin repeatedly saying he wasn’t trading Subban, he sent him to the Predators in the summer of 2016 in exchange for their captain, Shea Weber.

In his first season in Nashville, the Predators made it to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Penguins, but they had not been out of the second round since. This past season, Subban dealt with injuries and managed a career-low nine goals and 31 points in 63 games.

With Nashville’s depth on the blue line and a salary-cap crunch, Subban became expandable and the Devils’ ability to absorb the whole contract became paramount. In addition to the two picks — the first of which, No. 34, the Predators traded to move back — Predators GM David Poile asked for the Devils’ two young defensemen. Santini is 24 years old with 114 NHL games under his belt, while Davies is 22 and spent the past three season at Northeastern.

Shero kept dealing Saturday, sending his first-round pick from 2014, forward John Quenneville, to the Blackhawks for 24-year-old defenseman John Hayden, who has 113 games of NHL experience. Shero also made 10 selections from rounds two through seven, stockpiling prospects in the pool.

But everything was trumped by the Subban trade, which put the Devils back on the map in a very big way.

“Adding talent is one thing,” Shero said. “But the whole idea of P.K.’s enthusiasm for the game and for life, that’s real positive for us. It’s positive for the NHL.”