Golden Knights sign Victor Olofsson to one-year, $1.075M contract

Big-money Vegas is trying to score on a bargain deal.

On Tuesday, the Vegas Golden Knights signed forward Victor Olofsson to a one-year contract. The deal will carry a $1.075 million cap hit for the 2024-25 season.

Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff confirmed the signing.

PuckPedia was the first to break the trade earlier in the day. It is a bit of pay cut, as Olofsson is coming off a two-year contract with an AAV of $4.75 million.

It will be the first time Olofsson has had to change his address since coming to the NHL. The Orsnskoldsvik, Sweden native has spent the entirety of his young career with the Buffalo Sabres, the team that selected him in the seventh round of the 2014 NHL Draft. Olofsson worked his way up to the main roster in 2018-19, and has been one of the team’s mainstays for the past five seasons.

While he garnered the reputation as being a solid scorer, notching 20 or more goals three times, Olofsson seemed to have fallen out of favor this past season. Under head coach Don Granato, Olofsson was a healthy scratch a number of times during the 2023-24 campaign. In just 51 games, the 28-year-old scored only seven goals and eight assists. Prior to this year, he had never scored under 30 points in a full-time NHL season.

For the Golden Knights, a player with the potential to be a scoring threat on a cheap deal can pay off for them. Olofsson proved he could be a lethal weapon on the power play, scoring 61 times on the man advantage in his career. Vegas knows they need to have some bargain players on the roster, with very little cap space.

In 314 NHL games, Olofsson has posted 90 goals and 92 assists, with a plus/minus of -63.

With the signing, the Golden Knights have 43 standard player contracts on the books for next season. According to CapFriendly, Vegas is $2.6 million over the cap, though they are expected to use the $5 million cap hit on Robin Lehner’s contract for long-term injured reserve.