Quoting: Tjm220
Like I said, it seems pretty clear that it’s time he moved on. He’s not a top six forward on this team anymore. That doesn’t mean they should throw him away and take whatever someone will give them. You’ve made your opinion obvious enough. For the record I do believe he would’ve scored 30 goals his first full season in Buffalo if he had not gotten hurt. He played an bit over half a season that year and managed 20 before getting hurt. Considering that he was getting top six minutes and power-play time I will always believe 30 would have been totally possible. Is it more likely that Buffalo takes less than a first round pick in return for him if he is on his way out this off-season? Obviously. If teams think they can pay less, why would they pay more? I think it’s definitely possible he gets moved. I just don’t know if it will be at the draft or sometime after that. But the Sabres backed themselves into a corner and had to give away Apslund. Doing the same with Olofsson is just bad asset management, if nothing else.
"Selke" Asplund hasn't scored a goal since November 10, 2022. Since getting traded to the Preds on March 4 he's played in 16 games for Nashville, has zero goals, zero assists, is a minus-6 and averaged 10 minutes, 25 seconds of ice-time which is the lowest atoi of any player on that team. Asplund took a dive this season, not sure why, but the former second-rounder nose-dived right into a trade that netted the Sabres a mere 7th-round pick.
Olofsson was a 7th-round pick and fell off of a cliff for most of the calendar year. If the Sabres were to get a 2nd-rounder for him that would be a good return and actually balances out "Selke" Asplund's fall from grace.
As for "bad asset management," a point could be made for that, but it's more a case of hanging on to an asset for too long and selling low, imo. Not that I'm mad at management, because I saw Asplund as a solid fourth-liner with defensive acumen and the ability for modest offensive contributions while I thought "Goalofsson," despite his shortcomings, would contribute in a meaningful way. Neither really did that this season.