On Tuesday night, news broke that unrestricted free agent Victor Olofsson was getting close to choosing his team for the 2025-26 season.
The Hockey News confirmed that the Islanders were not involved in any discussions with Olofsson's camp during the free agent process.
The #Isles are not involved in this. https://t.co/iqAURd4uQ2
— Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) August 20, 2025
Puckpedia shared that they believed he would be signing a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche.
UFA F Victor Olofsson is expected to sign with #GoAvsGo for 1 year deal https://t.co/s8qU8unJ8Ahttps://t.co/WjUKCKH5Gm
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) August 20, 2025
For the New York Islanders, Olofsson would have made sense early on in free agency as a player who could help them at 5-on-5, but more importantly on the power play.
He also always seemed to be a player, especially during his time in Buffalo, who would always find the back of the net against the Islanders. He has 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in 22 games against Long Island, the second-highest point total behind his 17 against the New Jersey Devils (seven goals, 10 assists).
However, as free agency progressed, the Islanders brought aboard wingers to bolster all parts of their offense. They have Jonathan Drouin, Maxim Shabanov, and Emil Heineman now, along with a hopefully rejuvenated Anthony Duclair.
While we don't expect any forward that wasn't on the NHL roster a year ago to push for a roster spot outside of Calum Ritchie, we've touched a lot about the options Patrick Roy has when filling out his lineup card.
Islanders 2025-26 NHL Projected RosterOn Tuesday, NHL.com posted Stefen Rosner's New York Islanders team reset piece. Included in that story was his projected lineup for the 2025-26 season:
That's going to be the biggest thing to watch during training camp. All we know right now is that Drouin will be skating alongside Bo Horvat, and Mathew Barzal will be going back to center– that's at least the plan.
Colorado doesn't seem like a great fit for Olofsson, with power-play time going to be hard to come by, but it's never a bad thing to bring in scoring depth, especially on a cheap short-term deal.
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