The Buffalo Sabres have signed Swedish forward Jesper Olofsson to an AHL contact. The deal is for one year. Olofsson is the brother of current Sabres skater Victor Olofsson. The team announced the news on Tuesday.
🖊️NEWS | We have signed Jesper Olofsson to a one-year @TheAHL deal.
more: https://t.co/FKSHFRPbMi pic.twitter.com/mBugr8QBAG
— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) May 20, 2020
Sabres Sign Jesper Olofsson to AHL Deal
The older Olofsson has been playing various teams in the Swedish League for the past several seasons. The past two years have been with Farjestad BK. Olofsson was having a fine season with 17 goals and 28 points in 44 games before the league ceased operations. 2019-20 was Olofsson’s second straight season scoring at least 17 goals. He could have scored more but the pandemic has affected all corners of the hockey world.
Jesper Olofsson is listed as the same height as Victor but slightly heavier at 183 pounds compared to 176. Jesper has been a good goal-scoring option in recent years with over 60 SHL goals since 2015-16. The top Swedish league is one of the best outside of North America but there is no way of knowing if the older brother’s game will translate outside of Europe.
What This Means for the Future
This is an interesting low-risk move for the Sabres. Having one of their best players’ brothers creates an interesting dynamic even if they have not played on the same team before. It could give them an extra scoring punch if Jesper’s goal-scoring ability makes the journey from Sweden.
Buffalo still has several decisions to make regarding its offence for next season. We don’t know when hockey operations will resume but veterans Wayne Simmonds and Jimmy Vesey are two of five players that will be unrestricted free agents after this year. Buffalo has lacked scoring depth for years so its focus should be retaining as much talent as possible and using players like Olofsson as interesting supplements. This is far from Buffalo’s last move during the current shutdown.
