Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News wrote today that Buffalo Sabres forward Victor Olofsson, and his representatives expect him to be traded prior to the start of training camp in September. Olofsson has spent his entire five-year career with the Sabres where he has put up 167 points in 263 NHL games. This news isn’t all that surprising given that the soon to be 28-year-old is just a year away from being an unrestricted free agent and he was a healthy scratch for the Sabres down the stretch while they were battling for a playoff position.
The Swedish forward has been remarkably consistent in his career notching at least 20 goals in three of his last four seasons with the lockout shortened 2020-21 season being the one year he didn’t reach the mark. This past season Olofsson set a career high with 28 goals in 75 games to go along with 12 assists, but he has been made expendable by the emergence of several Sabres forward prospects and his pricey $4.75MM cap hit. Sabres GM Kevyn Adams has reportedly been very active on the trade market as he tries to get Buffalo back to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.
In other evening notes:
- The sale of the Ottawa Senators franchise may finally be entering its final days. This is according to Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia who has been tirelessly reporting on the process. It seems likely that the new owner will be either Michael Andlauer or Jeffrey and Michael Kimel of the Harlo Capital Group, however Los Angeles producer Neko Sparks remains in the mix but seems less likely to be the preferred bidder. League sources told Garrioch that they are confident there are no more major hurdles to clear leading them to believe they are on the verge of closing out the eight-month process. It’ll be interesting to see if the bid comes close to the $1B bid that was apparently posted by Steve Apostolopoulos, who has since left the bidding after he reportedly became frustrated with the process.
- The Carolina Hurricanes tweeted today that defender Amalie Andersen has inked a one-year contract with the Buffalo Beauts and become the first Danish born player to sign in the Premier Hockey Federation. The 23-year-old is the younger sister of Hurricanes netminder Frederik Andersen and played four years at the University of Maine where she put up two goals and seven assists in 60 career games. The Beauts are one of the founding teams in the PHF having started with three other clubs back in 2015 while the league was named the National Women’s Hockey League.
Olofsson has value for sure but easy to see why he want’s out when stiffs like Jost and Greenway are taking his ice time. Greenway isn’t even an NHL player.
I’m not sure what the deal is with him but it seems like he’s a massive liability on defense. He was like -25 while everyone else on the team was close to even or +. That can’t be just a coincidence with him scoring 20+ goals
VO was a non factor for many stretches of games. Greenway started to make a impact once he returned from injury. If you saw many Sabres games down the stretch you would see Jost was more of a complete player in those games than VO.
That makes sense.
“The sale of the Ottawa Senators franchise may finally be entering its final days.”
We heard this months ago.
True.
Jeff Carter and Ty Smith for Olofsson, who says no?
No
For 1 year of Carter he might be a better fit on the bottom 6 than VO. He would give the Sabres more a gritty player.