Victor Olofsson is set to be back in the Vegas Golden Knights’ lineup tonight in Detroit, with head coach Ryan Craig saying Thursday afternoon that the winger will face the Red Wings. According to Knights reporter Danny Webster, Olofsson will slot onto the third line alongside Tomas Hertl and rookie Trevor Connelly.
It’s a welcome return for a player who came out flying in his second run with Vegas. Olofsson piled up four goals and an assist in his first four games, highlighted by a two-goal performance against the Kraken on October 6.
That night ended badly, though, when Kraken forward Ben Meyers drove him into the boards. Meyers received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct, while Olofsson needed help getting off the ice.
He was placed on long-term injured reserve and had been considered week-to-week since.
Vegas enters the night sitting second in the Pacific with 22 points, but the club has hit a rough patch, going 2-3-2 over its last seven games. The most recent win came Tuesday in Pittsburgh, where Hertl scored his second power-play goal of the night in the final minute of regulation to secure a 3-2 victory.
Olofsson’s path to this point has been a winding one. Buffalo selected him in the seventh round, 181st overall, in 2014, and he spent the next four seasons in the SHL with MoDo and Frölunda.
When he first came to North America, he made an immediate impression, scoring 30 goals and 63 points in 66 games for Rochester in 2018-19 before earning a late-season call-up to Buffalo. He stayed with the Sabres the next fall and produced 90 goals and 182 points in 314 games over parts of six seasons with the club.
Since leaving Buffalo, the winger has bounced around. He signed one-year deals with Vegas in 2024 and Colorado in 2025, and in March, Colorado dealt him to Calgary in the trade that brought Nazem Kadri back to the Avalanche. Olofsson then returned to the Golden Knights on a one-year, $1.64MM contract on July 1.
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