This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Victor Olofsson
Buffalo Sabres Right Wing
Twenty goals from a median of 35 feet with 25 per cent of his attempts in the slot — the most perimeter shot chart of any forward in the league.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | BUF | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | +1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 9.5 | 18:01 |
| 2019-20 | BUF | 54 | 20 | 22 | 42 | -1 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 127 | 15.8 | 18:23 |
| 2020-21 | BUF | 56 | 13 | 19 | 32 | -23 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 10.1 | 17:24 |
| 2021-22 | BUF | 72 | 20 | 29 | 49 | -16 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 164 | 12.2 | 15:23 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 188 | 55 | 72 | 127 | -39 | 20 | 27 | 0 | 10 | 441 | 12.5 | 16:56 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
20 goals and 29 assists in 72 games — 49 points at 15:23 a night, minus-16, with 7 power-play goals and 6 game-winners on 164 shots and 6 penalty minutes.
25 per cent of his attempts came from inside the slot — the 1st percentile among the league forwards — at a median of 35 feet, the 99th. Nobody in hockey shot from further out.
46.2 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 933 minutes, the 24th percentile. His ice went 41-54 against an expectation of 35.83-41.67 — five goals of scoring above what the chances predicted and twelve more conceded than they did.
Twenty goals from the perimeter is a real and specific skill and it is also the ceiling. A shooter who never enters the slot depends entirely on the puck being brought to him.
The Finesse Game
164 attempts off an 87.0 mph release — the 28th percentile of velocity — converting at 12.2 per cent. The shot is not hard and it is early, which is the whole method: he releases before a goaltender has set, from a distance where being set is what matters most.
2.28 even-strength points per 60 is the 75th percentile and 29 assists in 72 games. 7 of the 20 goals came on the power play, where a one-timer from the left circle has been his living since he arrived.
The Physical Game
There is none, and the figures are close to unique. 0.54 hits per 60 is the 2nd percentile among forwards, 0.81 blocks the 7th, and he drew 0.22 penalties per 60 — the 2nd percentile. Six penalty minutes in 72 games.
Top speed 21.4 mph is the 4th percentile among the league’s forwards and 2.3 bursts above 20 mph per 60 is the 12th. He is among the slowest forwards in hockey and he plays a game that requires nothing else.
The Intangibles
One hundred and eighty-first overall in 2014, the seventh round, and 55 goals in 188 games since arriving at twenty-four.
He is 27, a restricted free agent re-signed in the summer. A one-dimensional perimeter shooter on a rebuilding club is a useful thing until the club is good, at which point somebody has to defend for him — and on the evidence of 12 goals conceded above expectation, Buffalo is already paying that bill.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- perimeter· shoots from the outside, by choice or because he cannot get in
36.4% of his attempts from 40 feet or beyond, 98th percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 50% keep it
- disciplined· stays out of the box
0.08 penalty minutes a game over 72, 2nd percentile among forwards
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.75) · 35% keep it
“25 per cent of his attempts came from inside the slot — the 1st percentile among the league forwards — at a median of 35 feet, the 99th”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 933 minutes
- Expected goals
- 46.2%
- 24th pct
- Shot attempts
- 50.5%
- 60th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 41 for, 54 against. Expected: 35.8 and 41.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 16 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 49 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 72 games
- Top speed
- 21.4 mph
- 21st pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.58 a game
- Distance
- 2.42 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 87.0 mph
- 49th pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 22.0
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 84.1
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2021-22 · 933 minutes at five-on-five
- Jeff Skinner29%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2021-22
- The club
- BUF took 46.3% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 46.2% — 0.1 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- Fourth line, 933 minutes at five-on-five — 54th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rasmus Asplund | 53.5% | 41.3% | 49.7% |
| Tage Thompson | 47.4% | 45.4% | 49.0% |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 43.6% | 47.8% | 47.3% |
53.5% together, 41.3% for him apart and 49.7% for Asplund apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
220 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 20 of them goals. His median goal came from 29 feet. 15% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 36% from beyond forty.