Just when it seemed like the 2026 offseason was coming to an end, the Vancouver Canucks made their biggest move of the summer, signing Zeev Buium to an eight-year, $9.38 million AAV extension.

It’s the second-largest contract in franchise history, the largest ever handed to a Canucks defender, and, for now, one of the largest contracts in the entire NHL, period, at a total value of $75.04 million. When contracts get that big, it can become difficult to find true comparables.

But we feel that we’ve found a very good comparable that might give us an idea of where Buium’s new contract, and the value thereof, might go from here. And that comparable is another left-shot, American-born defender who extended for eight years with a Canadian team. It’s Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators.

Sanderson and Buium are, on the surface, two fairly similar players. Both were drafted decently high in the first round of their respective drafts, with Sanderson going fifth overall in 2020 and Buium going 12^th overall in 2024. Both had familial ties to the NHL already at that point, with Jake being the son of former Canuck Geoff Sanderson and Zeev being the brother of Detroit draft pick Shai Buium.

Between the two, Buium started his career a little earlier, debuting as a 19-year-old in the playoffs in his Draft+1 season and then becoming a full-time NHLer at 20 in his Draft+2 season last year. Sanderson didn’t debut until his Draft+3 season, although because he was drafted before his 18^th birthday, he, too, spent his rookie campaign as a 20-year-old.

There are some stylistic differences. Sanderson is a little taller, but a little slighter than Buium at 6’2”, compared to Buium’s 6’0”. Buium was drafted with a more dynamic offensive reputation, while Sanderson held more two-way promise. Both, however, have built their games around a truly elite level of skating.

Both Sanderson and Buium put up respectable, if unspectacular, rookie campaigns. Sanderson posted four goals and 32 points in 77 games for the Senators in 2022-23, playing about 21:55 a night and ending up on the All-Rookie Team. Buium only scored six goals and 26 points in 76 games, while averaging 19:35 a night, and did not make the All-Rookie Team. It should be noted, however, that Sanderson didn’t have to change teams halfway through his rookie season.

The most important parallel here, however, is what happened after that. Both players were signed to massive, eight-year extensions in the September following their rookie campaigns. Sanderson signed an eight-year, $8.05 million AAV contract on September 6, 2023.

Aside from the considerable league inflation that’s occurred in the three-year interim, the contracts are incredibly comparable. They were both signed for the maximum term with one year remaining in their ELCs, and both cover the approximate ages of 22 to 29.

At the start of his contract, Sanderson’s cap hit took up about 9.15% of the total available cap. When his contract starts in 2027-28, Buium’s cap hit will take up about 8.26%. In other words, they’re very close to the same contract, within the context of the time they were signed.

They’re also two contracts that were signed with the same basic idea behind them, that being a slightly-premature-but-still-well-founded bet on a young defender to be a franchise cornerstone, and an attempt to lock them in at a rate that will eventually be considered a great bargain.

So far, so good, for the Ottawa Senators.

The Sens proceeded to watch Sanderson grow in his sophomore season, as many are hoping and expecting for Buium to do, although not to an enormous extent. He upped his point total to 38, upped his average ice time to 23:13, and began to clean up his defensive metrics. By this point, Sanderson was already becoming a top-pairing defender for the Senators, and wound up playing more minutes than both Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun in the 2023-24 season. Which, as we have to keep reiterating, was not the first year of his extension, but instead the final year of his ELC.

Sanderson’s true breakout would come the following year in 2024-25. Now 22, Sanderson would post 11 goals and 57 points in 80 games, and despite already being the Senators’ ice time leader, still managed to up his average to 24:27.

This year, Sanderson also started to pick up some Norris votes, finishing 10th in overall voting. He was also named to Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off as an injury replacement for Quinn Hughes. And his cap hit was only the 17^th-highest among league-wide D. So, already, by the first year of his extension, Sanderson was arguably returning surplus value compared to his cap hit.

And that was without the benefit of major inflation. The cap ceiling was at $83.5 million when Sanderson signed his extension, and it was still only at $88 million when the contract began.

By the next year, this most recent 2025-26 season, the cap ceiling jumped up to $95.5 million, further shrinking Sanderson’s cap percentage to just 8.4%. And at the same time, several other D signed large contracts of their own, dropping Sanderson down to 23^rd overall in defender cap hits.

Meanwhile, Sanderson himself continued to grow and evolve as a player. He suffered through the first major injury of his career, limiting him to 67 regular season games, but he put up a whopping 54 points in those games. His ice time ticked up slightly to 24:50 a night, and he again finished in tenth place in Norris voting. This time around, Sanderson didn’t need to wait for an injury to be named to the Team USA roster for the 2026 Olympics.

By now, few could argue that Sanderson’s contract has become anything but a genuine bargain. Which brings us to the present day.

Sanderson is entering his fifth NHL season, and the third year of his eight-year extension. He’ll enter the season widely recognized as a true number one defender, and at least on the periphery of the league-wide top-10.

With all that inflation and the contracts that have been signed under it, Sanderson’s cap hit of $8.05 million now ranks him as 30^th overall among league-wide defenders. His contract now takes up just 7.7% of the total available cap of $104 million.

Sanderson’s contract probably would have built to surplus value just on this inflation factor alone, even if he hadn’t progressed all that much as a player. But Sanderson did progress as a player, and significantly so, and now his contract already looks like one of the best value contracts in the league, here just three years into it.

To expect Buium to experience a similar evolution as a player from here on out is definitely optimistic. There’s a real chance he does, and Buium is loaded with potential, but until that potential is realized, there’s also always a chance that he doesn’t fulfill it.

But while Buium’s progress can’t be guaranteed, we’d argue that he probably doesn’t even need to grow his game as much as Sanderson has for his contract’s value to grow in a similar fashion. That’s because league inflation has only picked up the pace of late, and doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.

The cap grew from just $83.5 million when Sanderson signed his deal to $88 million when it began. For Buium, it’s $104 million when he signed his deal, and $113.5 million by the time it begins.

In other words, Buium’s contract is already a great bet to return good value. But that’s just the floor. The path Sanderson took since signing his contract shows the ceiling for Buium from here on out, and that ceiling is an elite defender locked into a bargain contract for the better part of the next decade.

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