Victor Olofsson’s start with the Golden Knights keeps getting louder.
On Tuesday night, Vegas rolled past the Seattle Kraken 6-2 and leaned hard on its power play, with Tomas Hertl piling up four points and Olofsson adding two more goals to stay atop the team’s scoring chart through four games. The night ended badly for Olofsson, though. After taking a questionable hit in the third period, he didn’t finish the game, and the closing minutes turned messy with penalties and scrums as the tempers rose.
What Olofsson is doing right now is starting to look a lot more important than the offseason chatter suggested. Vegas brought him back for a second stint as the club searched for answers after Pavel Dorofeyev’s goal output, and plenty of people shrugged at the move.
Four games in, that skepticism is looking a little shaky. Olofsson has quietly become one of the Golden Knights’ most valuable additions, and his two-goal night against Seattle only added to that case.
The scoring pace is especially striking when stacked against what he did a year ago. Olofsson needed 14 games last season to reach the goal total he’s already sitting on now.
He opened the 2025-26 season with the Colorado Avalanche after signing there as a free agent, and the first 10 games brought no goals, only five assists. Then came a breakout on October 26 against the New Jersey Devils, when he scored his first and only hat trick in an 8-4 win.
He went quiet for the next two games, then followed with two more goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning on November 4.
His production stayed scattered after that. He scored again on November 16, added another on December 13, and later picked up three more goals in the new year before a trade sent him to Calgary, where he managed just two goals in 18 games.
Even with that uneven path, the resume still carries weight. Olofsson, a former three-time 20-goal scorer, has seen his goal totals dip only slightly over the past three seasons, from 15 to 13 to 11. The last time he wore a Golden Knights uniform, he finished with 15 goals in 56 games, plus a plus-17 rating, six power-play goals and four game-winners.
The early Vegas numbers are eye-catching enough to spark the usual big-picture math. According to Olofsson’s Elite Prospects profile, the 31-year-old from Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, is on pace for 56 goals and 84 points.
That kind of finish would be a massive leap from his career highs of 28 goals and 49 points, so even a move into the 30-goal, 50-point range would be a major outcome. Dorofeyev led the Golden Knights in goals the last two seasons with 35 and 37, and if Olofsson keeps this up, he could become the seventh player in franchise history to hit 30 goals in a season.
Nobody is pretending he’ll score at this rate forever. Slumps are coming, and 50-goal seasons are still rare in today’s NHL.
But on a one-year deal worth $1.6 million, Olofsson already looks like he could earn a bigger role in the offense and maybe a longer contract in the offseason. For now, he’s giving Vegas exactly what it needed early, and through four games he’s been a driving force behind the team’s 3-1-0 start.
In Other News...
Golden Knights Big Win Came With A New Injury Concern
The Golden Knights left Seattle with another convincing road win, rolling past the Kraken 6-2 at Climate Pledge Arena and staying unbeaten in regulation at the building. Mark Stone helped power the night with the NHLs first Gordie Howe Hat Trick of the 2026-27 season, piling up two goals, an assist and a fight in a game that had plenty of edge for Vegas.
The mood shifted late when Kraken forward Ben Meyers boarded Victor Olofsson, leaving the Golden Knights with a fresh injury concern to monitor after an otherwise strong showing. Meyers was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct, and while Vegas kept control on the scoreboard, the bigger question coming out of the trip now centers on Olofssons status. [Read more 🡒]
Kraken Suddenly Face A Blue Line Concern After Physical Loss
Ryan Lindgrens night ended early after a hit from behind forced the Seattle defenseman out with an upper-body injury, adding another layer of concern to a Kraken group already trying to absorb the physical toll of a hard game. The sequence also left Vegas with its own injury issue, as forward Victor Olofsson was hurt after being boarded by a Seattle player, turning a chippy matchup into one with potential ripple effects for both clubs.
For a Golden Knights team that knows how quickly a lineup can be tested over the course of a road swing, the aftermath matters almost as much as the result. Seattle now has to sort through a blue line situation that was already under pressure, while the broader injury picture across the teams involved could shape how both sides approach their next games. [Read more 🡒]
Mark Stone Showed Why Vegas Trusts Him In That Moment
Mark Stone reached a familiar kind of milestone in Seattle, piling up another reminder of why the Golden Knights keep leaning on him in big moments. He hit 400 points with Vegas while also putting together a Gordie Howe hat trick against the Kraken, scoring, assisting and dropping the gloves in a game the Golden Knights controlled from the start at Climate Pledge Arena.
The fight added a sharper edge to an already one-sided night, coming after Brandon Montours comments about Vegas had set the stage for extra tension. Stones response, and the way teammates and coach Ryan Craig reacted to it, only reinforced the view inside the room that he sets the tone in more ways than one, even if the larger message behind the scrap still lingers a little beyond the final score. [Read more 🡒]