Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25: #9 Oskar Olausson

Yet another forward looking to make the jump up to the first team.

The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Mile High Hockey staff. Six writers have ranked players under the age of 25 as of August 1, 2024, in the Colorado Avalanche organization. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.

Oskar Olausson has been one of the Colorado Avalanche’s most divisive first-round selections in the past decade. He was selected 28th overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft but has failed to live up to that pedigree three years removed from his selection. Despite the disappointment thus far there is still promise for the young winger and his future with the Colorado Avalanche.

Olausson played his draft plus one year in the OHL, splitting time between the Barrie Colts and the Oshawa Generals. Through his 55 games that season he tallied 26 goals and 23 assists. He then made the move to professional hockey and has played two seasons with the Avs AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. In both seasons Olausson has put up 11 goals and 9 assists but his first season was 63 games long and this past season was cut to 39 for him due to surgery on his shoulder. In a full 72-game season Olausson was on pace for 20 goals and 37 points.

His production has been on the light side, especially for a first-round pick. There has been some adjusting to North American ice and professional hockey to be considered when looking at those numbers but they still fall short of where other prospects of his pedigree have landed.

The trademarks of Olausson’s game are skill and speed. He’s a prolific skater with good hands and a good shot. These are all things that he can no doubt bring to an NHL roster. His speed and skill have been things he heavily relied on at younger levels with more ice and less killed opponents but now he has to adapt to a tighter game to succeed.

Some of the big questions facing Olausson are if he can use his size effectively, if he can process the game at an NHL level, and if his shot is as prolific against NHL goalies as it is against the lower-level goalies he’s faced thus far.

Creating time and space for himself is a big area of concern. He needs to be able to process the play and use his large frame to give himself the time needed to showcase his impressive shot. Otherwise, he absolutely cannot be an NHL player.

Last season was a big sign of progress for the 21-year-old Swedish winger. The aforementioned bump in production is obviously a noticeable improvement but he was also much more effective at the NHL level this season.

Olausson had one-game showings in both the 2022-23 season and the 2023-24 season. His 2022 cameo was his NHL debut and it seemed like it. He only got seven minutes of ice time and managed zero shots on net. All in all, he looked pretty transparent, although he did okay in his underlying numbers. His appearance this most recent season was quite the opposite. Olausson got almost 12 minutes of ice time and had two shots on goal, blocked shots, and hits. He was more noticeable in the areas that would stand out to coaches but he also got pretty severely crushed in the underlying numbers. For a young player more ice time and higher concrete stats are a bit more valuable, meaning this most recent appearance was definitely a good sign.

The major area of focus for Olausson this season is whether can he keep improving, but a big part of that is how he handles the shoulder injury. For a player who is already on the softer side an injury to a body part that’s so critical in controlling the puck is a worry. He is slated to be cleared to return for training camp next month, so we will get a good look at how he feels with his shoulder pretty soon.

Olausson has improved since being drafted by the Avalanche in 2021, but there is still more work to be done to get himself NHL-ready. This is a make-or-break season for him and his future with the organization. He needs to show much more at both the AHL and NHL levels if the Avalanche are to consider him in any future plans.

2024 Top 25 Under 25

#10 Ondrej Pavel

#11 Ivan Ivan

#12 William Zellers

#13 Tory Pitner

#14 Christian Humphreys

#15 Trent Miner

#16 Max Curran

#17 Saige Weinstein

#T-18 Jake Fisher

#T-18 Matthew Stienburg

#20 Chase Bradley

#T-21 Louka Cloutier

#T-21 Kevin Mandolese

#23 Zakhar Bardakov

#24 Taylor Makar

#25 Maros Jedlicka