Dallas Stars trade forward Fredrik Olofsson to Colorado Avalanche

Division rivals were involved in a trade on Thursday when the Colorado Avalanche acquired Dallas Stars forward Fredrik Olofsson for future considerations.

Olofsson, 27, scored a goal and 4 points during 28 regular season games with Dallas in 2022-2023. He scored 5 goals and 14 points in 37 games with the AHL Texas Stars.

Last season was the winger’s first taste of NHL action. Though the Chicago Blackhawks picked Olofsson in the fourth round of the 2014 entry draft after a promising USHL career, the Swede never caught on in Chicago after a four-year stint with the collegiate Omaha Mavericks.

Olofsson caught the attention of the Stars after impressing in the pro ranks of his native Sweden by scoring 76 points in 100 games with the SHL’s IK Oskarshamm.

The Avalanche acquired Olofsson to bring in cheap depth to a forward group rapidly changing in the wake of the team’s 2021 Stanley Cup triumph.

Key contributors Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky left as free agents that summer and center J.T. Compher will likely do the same in the coming weeks. With captain Gabriel Landeskog’s career jeopardized by knee injuries and first-year Av Evan Rodrigues also likely to walk, GM Joe Sakic will need to get creative to reload his top-six.

Olofsson will not give coach Jared Bednar high-leverage minutes but can round out the bottom six as Sakic seeks solutions to Colorado’s depth issues. With Landeskog on the LTIR, he suddenly has north of $12 million in cap space to do that with.

After narrowly outlasting Dallas in the race for the Central Division crown, the Avalanche were dispatched by the newest team in the NHL, the Seattle Kraken, in seven games.