Ahead of the Vancouver Canucks‘ game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night — a game where the Canucks blanked the New York Rangers 3-0 — Jonny Lazarus from our sister site Daily Faceoff caught up with new Canucks defenceman Zeev Buium. Buium, acquired as the focal point of the trade that sent Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, has made a strong early impression in his two games as a Canuck. Buium picked up a goal and an assist over two power play chances as the Canucks went on to beat the Devils 2-1 in Buium’s Canucks debut over the weekend. Lazarus spoke to Buium for over six minutes in a 1-on-1 setting. Here is that interview in its entirety.

Q: Obviously, a crazy couple of days, but you got one game under your belt. Nice long road trip to hang out with the guys and get comfortable. How helpful is it for you to be on the road here for a week before you really gotta figure real life stuff out?

A: It’s nice. I think. I think that’s probably the best way to kind of do it is come join them on the road, especially on road trip like this in New York, too, to start off. So it’s nice, get to know everybody, go to dinners, and everyone’s been great, so it’s. It’s nice to kind of bond with everyone. Good mix of young guys, too, so that’s nice.

Q: You got family coming to town for the week too?

Q: The past couple days, obviously, I’m sure everyone’s been reaching out, texting you crazy media requests, including me. But has it been really cool to be known as now the guy? I mean, you hear people talking, saying, like, you’re going to be the next Quinn Hughes in Vancouver. I know it’s a lot of pressure, but there’s got to be something cool about that, no?

A: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think I look at it that way necessarily. I love Minnesota. I love everything about it. I think when you get drafted to a team, you think you’re going to be there forever. And like I said earlier, I don’t think anything they told me was a lie. I don’t think anything with my path, there was a lie. But they had a chance to get a guy like Quinn and he’s a superstar, you know, so. But again, I mean, I think for me it’s not so much ‘you’re going to be Quinn’, it’s more I want to be myself. And, you know, we’re different players and obviously he’s done what he’s done and I’m just starting out, so I just, like I said, I want to become the best player I can be. And I want to be really good and get to that level. But in my way, you know? I don’t want to do it and be, oh, he’s finally Quinn. If I turn into that and start building that, I want to be known as me.

Q: Well, I know you talked about loving watching Quinn play. Is that going to be a little bit weird now?

A: Yeah, I mean, we watched the game. I’m happy for them, happy that it’s working out and I know that he’s going to love the guys there. They’re all amazing, so it’s definitely a little bit weird, but still love watching him. Obviously, such a good player and so many things that I can learn from just from watching him. Even how the guys talk about him here. I was texting with Bogo [Zach Bogosian] and just things he was saying that Quinn looks at and looks for, and just the knowledge and stuff. So, yeah, it’s cool to be able to watch him and try to take stuff from him.

Q: Have you been in contact with him at all? Like, have you met him?

A: I’ve met him once or twice just through being at NTDP, but he texted me after I got drafted. I don’t know him that well, but just from everyone else, he’s just a great human and obviously the guys miss him here a lot, so it shows a lot about his character and obviously he was a leader as a guy, a captain. I think the on-ice part kind of stands for itself. But yeah, never really been in too much contact with him besides that, that text after the draft. But that was really cool of him to do.

Q: I feel like just looking at your hockey career history, you’ve never really moved teams before until you’ve made the jump to the next level. So for you, like, how has that been, I mean, the first time experiencing it is at the NHL level and in your rookie year?

A: It was weird. Yeah, it was really weird when Billy [Wild GM Bill Guerin] called me. I thought he was sending me down, so I was laughing about that. Like I said, you think you’re gonna be in the same place forever and things change, but hopefully this can be my new home and I can be here for a very long time. So, yeah, I mean, it’s definitely weird. I’ve always kind of been in the same place through my path to get here and through the Junior Kings — I did actually go to Junior Ducks for one year and went back to Junior Kings, I know the boys didn’t like that — but yeah, but I think other than that, I mean, I was Shattuck, then to NTDP and Denver and I fell in love with all those places. I think that’s something that just kind of happens to me all the time. Wherever I go, I tend to fall in love with the place. I don’t know if that’s growing up in California not knowing too much about other cities and places, but I think you got to make the best out of every opportunity and you never know what’s going to happen. I think I got to see the business side of it pretty early on.

Q: Do you have a plan for when you get back to Vancouver? On like, who you’re going to live with or where you’re going to stay?

A: I think worry about it when the time comes. I think right now I’m just trying to focus on these games and help these guys out in any way I can. And I think I’ll figure that out sometime. But hopefully actually maybe soon. But it’s not the biggest focus for sure.

Q: I saw Hronek and Foote trying to help you learn how to take a one timer. Is that the main priority right now? Is just to learn how to one time the puck? Is that step one?

A: [laughs] Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s always cool. Like, I always like watching guys and I’ve always seen his [Hronek’s] one timer and how good it is. So, you know, I just wanted to kind of pick his brain a little bit, see what, what he does, if he does anything differently. So, you know, there’s a reason why he is who he is. So it’s pretty cool. And yeah, I think it’s just trying to pick the brain a little bit. It’s not my biggest asset and I think it’s little things like that that can change your game. Maybe you can score two or three more goals a year just by having a good one timer, and it’s something I struggle with sometimes. So just trying to pick their brains and see what they do differently, that’s the biggest thing.

Q: Any good Hanukkah gifts?

A: Not yet, no. We have a couple Jewish guys on the team, Sass [Max Sasson], Kaner [Evander Kane]. I guess he’s Jewish, I didn’t know that. I think Woody said he’s half Jewish, so we’ve got a couple Jewish guys on the team, which is pretty cool.

Check out the full interview in video form below!