𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

About two weeks ago, I was watching a game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Minnesota Wild. It was one of the best regular-season contests of the year, with two of the heavyweight contenders in the West trading haymakers and putting on a tremendous show of elite skill and playoff-like intensity.

Several big-name stars dazzled that night. Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas were terrifying and looked unguardable at times together. Cale Makar’s pair dictated many shifts in the attacking zone. Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy were game-breakers. Joel Eriksson Ek’s beastly work off the cycle and net-front area in the offensive zone was a treat to watch.

Further down the lineup, though, there was an uber-talented rookie who caught my eye with some of his electric plays. That player’s name? Zeev Buium.

Buium, who scored a dominant 1.18 points per game across two seasons in the NCAA before turning pro late last season, entered the 2025-26 campaign as one of the top Calder Trophy candidates. He’s made mistakes and experienced more ups and downs in the early going than expected. However, flashy performances like the one he had against the Avalanche (where he picked up an assist and was noticeable for his dynamic plays on a few instances) were a reminder of his star potential. So was his debut game for the Canucks, following the Quinn Hughes trade, where he logged 19:50, notched two points and showed promising flashes as a play driver.

Buium is the highest upside piece of the Hughes return, which also included Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren and a first-round pick. But he’s still a raw player with many areas where he needs to grow. Here are some early observations of his game.

Why Buium has a chance to be special offensively

Buium has been described as “Hughes-lite” by some of the industry talent evaluators I spoke to following the trade. You can notice some of those stylistic similarities when you watch Buium control the puck high in the offensive zone.

The 20-year-old defender is an elite skater. He’s explosive on his edges, which enables him to make sharp cuts to escape tight areas and change directions on a dime. He’s incredibly quick walking the blue line from east to west. Buium can effortlessly open his hips to fend off pressure, change his angles of attack and open new passing and shooting lanes.

“(Buium) is going to be a player in this league,” Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carberry told colleague Joe Smith earlier this season. “He’s your prototypical (Quinn) Hughes, (Cale) Makar type of defenseman. Lateral mobility, deception, holding onto pucks, finding shot lanes and seams.”

Watch how Buium makes a couple of Buffalo forwards look silly in the clip below. He beats a lunging Alex Tuch by exploding to the inside. He darts back toward the outside to avoid another check and then dipsy-doodles past a third Sabres player. Buium isn’t ultimately able to convert the sequence into a scoring chance because the puck slid off his blade at the last second, but it was an electrifying play that highlights his game-breaking skill.

Buium’s offence has immediately translated to the power play, but at even strength, he’s only picked up six points this season. Why? There is a combination of reasons.

Firstly, I’ve noticed that Buium is still learning what he can and can’t get away with doing in the NHL. He’s a bit loose with his stickhandling and passing at times, which has led to some turnovers. During the Canucks’ first game of the season against Minnesota on Nov. 1, for example, Buium skated the puck behind Vancouver’s net. But then he botched the pass to Vladimir Tarasenko, which led to an odd-man rush that Drew O’Connor scored on.

Secondly, I’ve noticed that sometimes Buium will make a slick maneuver with his skating to create a bit of time and space, but he doesn’t always know the next move to make to convert it into a high-danger chance for himself or a linemate. Because of that, you’ll see five-on-five offensive zone shifts where he begins the sequence with a really cool move, but the play fizzles out and doesn’t actually translate to a meaningful scoring opportunity. With more NHL experience, I’d expect some of these reads to become more instinctual, which will allow him to punish teams more assertively.

Finally, I saw multiple examples where his teammates in Minnesota didn’t read off Buium very well and accidentally crowded his skating lanes. In the clip below, for example, Buium picks up the puck on the left half-wall with his back toward the net. A player with Buium’s elite skating will typically want to carry the puck up high and then make a move. However, his partner, Zach Bogosian, is crowding the high ice area to present Buium with a passing option at the left point. Buium keeps skating back up toward the zone, Bogosian doesn’t understand the need to move down low in the offensive zone, and so Buium’s pass into that area ends up being a turnover.

Buium’s skating, creativity and ability to open space are very high-end tools. There’s still a lot of room for him to refine and grow as an attacker, but the raw materials are there for him to become a very high point producer.

Buium’s defensive play is a work in progress

When Hughes came into the NHL as a 20-year-old rookie, he was instantly winning his two-way matchups in a top pair role. The same was true for other superstar defenders like Makar and Zach Werenski; from day one in the NHL, they were already playing like bona fide first-pair defencemen at both ends of the rink.

Buium, on the other hand, is far more of a work in progress. Despite averaging a modest 18:30 per game and absorbing soft matchups, Buium’s five-on-five underlying numbers this season are quite poor, particularly on the defensive end. Minnesota controlled just 43 percent of shots, 45 percent of expected goals and was outscored 18-13 during the rookie’s five-on-five shifts this year.

Buium turned 20 earlier this month; he’s exceptionally young and has tons of time to grow, so I’m not too concerned by these numbers. However, since we’re discussing Buium’s ceiling and most likely outcomes, it’s noteworthy that a large chunk of the Hughes/Makar/Werenski superstar-tier defencemen had a far superior immediate impact than Buium when they were 20-year-old NHL rookies.

These rough defensive results aren’t for a lack of effort. Buium’s work rate off the puck is high, and it’s not like he’s being manhandled physically. Instead, I’ve noticed a decent chunk of his defensive errors stem from his reads, timing and positioning. Here, for example, Buium lunges in against the puck carrier along the boards. His pressure doesn’t break the play up, and now he’s caught spraying too wide. As the play develops, Josh Doan ends up open in the slot for a Grade-A chance, with Buium unable to recover.

Here’s another mistake from diving in that leads to a chance against, this time while defending the rush.

In the next clip, the Wild have two players aggressively closing on a puck carrier behind the net. Realistically, that player’s next passing option is Mikko Rantanen, who is also below the goal line. Minnesota probably shouldn’t have doubled the puck carrier down low, but Buium should’ve anticipated the pass to Rantanen and closed the gap more quickly. Instead, he’s a bit sluggish to react, which gives Rantanen enough time and space to feather a pass into the slot for a chance.

To be clear, Buium’s defensive mistakes aren’t boneheaded or overly egregious. However, the weaknesses in his defensive details are adding up and clearly hurting his two-way impact.

It isn’t all bad on the defensive front, though. He competes hard, isn’t afraid to initiate physical contact and wins a fair number of battles for an average-sized 20-year-old in the NHL. That level of care makes me optimistic that he’ll grow defensively over time. Buium’s quick backpedals and pivots should also become a major asset for matching the speed of puck carriers through the neutral zone and defending the rush well.

Watch the defensive stop he makes on Jack Drury, one of the fastest third-liners in the NHL, on the rush below.

Buium’s upside as a puck transporter

Buium’s ceiling as a puck-mover is high because of how dynamic his feet are. We already saw evidence of that during his Canucks debut, including a second-period shift where he turned the jets on against a hounding forechecker and single-handedly carried the puck out for a controlled zone exit. He has impressive top-end speed moving north-south, which made him a treat to counterattack if the opposition lost possession in Minnesota’s zone.

In this next clip, notice how Buium explodes out of the gates to create separation and drive a controlled zone entry.

Buium doesn’t just rely on pure speed and power to lead successful entries. He also has the finesse, swagger and hands to stickhandle in and around traffic.

However, even as a puck transporter, Buium is only scratching the surface of his potential. For now, he seems a tad hesitant on defensive zone retrievals when he doesn’t have the space to just carry the puck out. Buium doesn’t always take the most direct, efficient route to the puck. When there’s a dump-in, you can see him shoulder-checking and scanning for options, but the result isn’t always pretty. Sometimes he takes a beat too long to make a play, gets stripped of possession or forces an option that doesn’t work. He isn’t yet at the point where retrievals in tight areas look instinctual to him. However, like many areas we discussed in this story, I expect Buium’s exits (which are fine, just not elite the way you might guess based on his skating) to continually improve with added NHL experience.

Overall, there are many exciting tools in Buium’s game. He’s raw both offensively and defensively, but his feet, skill and offensive vision are all tantalizing. If Buium can put it all together, he’ll be a top-pairing star and perhaps even a bona fide No. 1 defenceman.