Report: Avalanche to sign Victor Olofsson to one-year contract

One of the top remaining unrestricted free agents has seemed to have found a new home.

On Tuesday, PuckPedia reported that the Colorado Avalanche have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with forward Victor Olofsson.

The terms of the deal have yet to be reported.

Olofsson went into this past offseason feeling good after a bounce-back season with the Vegas Golden Knights. After spending the first six seasons of his NHL career with the Buffalo Sabres, the team that took him in the seventh round of the 2014 NHL Draft, he signed a one-year, $1.075 million contract. The move for the Swedish winger came after a rough 2023-24 campaign with the Sabres, where he scored just 15 points in 51 games.

With the Golden Knights, Olofsson found a little bit of the groove that made him a promising scorer in his earlier years in Buffalo. Injuries limited the 30-year-old to just 56 games, but he managed to score 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points. While it might not have been the 40-point-a-year pace he was on with the Sabres, Olofsson proved he could be an important depth contributor on a solid team.

In Vegas’ nine games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Olofsson notched four points, with the Golden Knights getting bounced by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round.

Olofsson has appeared in 370 NHL contests, scoring 105 goals and 106 assists for 211 points. His playoff experience this past spring was the first time he’d ever played in the postseason.

Olofsson will be joining an Avs team that was eliminated in the Central Division Semifinals by the Dallas Stars. With a team featuring superstar Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and its now-healthy captain Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado has hopes it will be one of the top teams in the league again next season.