Players who have yet to prove themselves don’t typically get that kind of long-term, big-money commitment, and Buium has only played 76 NHL games so far in his career.

But there are a lot of reasons to believe in Buium.

One is the obvious skill level. This is a defenceman who put up 50 points in 42 games in his draft year in the NCAA. That’s the most points ever by an 18-year-old defenceman in college hockey.

In his rookie season in the NHL, Buium put up 26 points in 76 games. While not exceptional numbers, it was enough to show that at least some of what he did in college hockey could translate to the NHL. It also wasn’t far off from the production of future number-one defencemen at the same age, like Kris Letang, Victor Hedman, and Aaron Ekblad.

Buium certainly passed the eye test, making some exceptional plays with his high-end hockey IQ, vision, mobility, hands, and shot.

Beyond what he did on the ice, Buium quickly made an impact off the ice with his obvious leadership capability. His confidence, outgoing nature, and easy camaraderie with his teammates have helped kickstart the Canucks’ culture overhaul.

It’s easy to imagine a future leadership core of Buium, Braeden Cootes, and Caleb Malhotra, especially with Buium now signed long-term.

Still, there are some causes for concern.

Buium’s underlying numbers in his rookie season were underwhelming, even taking into account that he played most of his games on the worst team in the NHL, and the Canucks were outscored 40-to-23 when Buium was on the ice at 5-on-5. There’s a chance that Buium falls short of being the true top-pairing defenceman the Canucks hope he can be.

But there’s at least one really good reason to believe that he can fulfill those expectations: the Foote Effect.

It’s not breaking any new ground to say that Adam Foote was not a good head coach. The evidence became overwhelming over the course of the 2025-26 season. Perhaps the biggest indictment of Foote’s coaching was Zeev Buium.

When Buium first came over from the Minnesota Wild in the Quinn Hughes trade, he immediately excited Canucks fans with his ability to transition the puck up ice, activate in the offensive zone, and create chances. He was playing on instinct, still needing time to adjust to his new environment, but those instincts were impressive.

Unfortunately, he then adjusted to his new environment.

If we take a 10-game rolling average of Zeev Buium’s expected goals percentage (as calculated by Natural Stat Trick) over his 45 games with the Canucks, we can see what happened as he played more and more under head coach Adam Foote.

Buium kept his expected goals percentage steadily above 50% through the back half of December and the first half of January, meaning the Canucks largely out-chanced and out-shot their opponents with Buium on the ice at 5-on-5.

The more Buium played under Foote, however, the worse he got. By the end of the season, Buium dipped below 40%.

While some of that is the reality of how the Canucks as a whole played to close out that terrible season, but it’s hard not to look at a chart like that and see an impactful, instinctual player dragged down by a coach and his system.

Now, the question is what Buium can do under a new head coach. If Buium can consistently be as good as he was in that first month with the Canucks (and hopefully better), he could make his new contract look like a steal sooner rather than later.