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Canucks’ Buium ready to pick up where he left off before facial injury extended his Olympic break
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Feb 19, 2026, 13:00 ESTUpdated: Feb 19, 2026, 12:51 EST
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For Vancouver Canucks defenceman Zeev Buium, the Olympic break was both a blessing and a curse.
The forced stoppage in the National Hockey League schedule allowed a facial fracture suffered in a January 25th game against the Pittsburgh Penguins to heal and limited the number of games the San Diego native had to miss. That was the good news. The downside is that the injury came at a time when Buium felt his game was gaining traction.
As it turned out, Buium missed the final five contests heading into the stoppage. Without the Olympics, that number could easily have reached 15 games or more. So the young blueliner is trying to take the positives out of the fact that while he hasn’t played in nearly a month, he really didn’t miss much game action.
Buium returned to practice with his teammates this week, wearing a full cage and a red non-contact jersey for precautionary reasons. But he’s confident he’ll be able to shed both protective measures in short order and will be ready to play when the puck drops on the Canucks next game on Wednesday, February 25th, against the Winnipeg Jets.
“The break kind of came at a perfect time, obviously,” Buium said with a smile after practice at UBC. “You don’t want to miss games. Luckily with the break everyone has time to rest and heal. For me especially, it was good not to worry about missing games.”
While Buium has tried to find the silver linings in his serious injury, he was also disappointed at the timing of it all. In the game before he was injured, he scored a brilliant goal against the New Jersey Devils. The sequence was a showcase of the many skills that make Buium the highly-touted prospect he is. 
After an offensive zone faceoff win by Elias Pettersson, who drew the puck to the left point, Buium moved down the boards and then cut hard to the slot before unleashing a wrist shot that Jacob Markstrom stopped. But Buium showed the presence of mind to stay with the play and converted his own rebound for his second goal as a Canuck and his first at Rogers Arena. 
“Those last couple of games, I thought I was growing into myself a little more and thought the game against New Jersey went well,” he explained. “I was excited to play again and then this (the injury) happens. But for me, it’s nice to know that when you play your game and do the things you want to do and they start to work and you become more confident knowing that you can do these things at this level. And I think that’s where my head is at. I want to bring that into my game a little bit more. Play with more confidence.”
In 20 games since being the centrepiece the Canucks received in return in the Quinn Hughes trade to Minnesota in mid-December, Buium has scored twice and added four assists while averaging 20:24 of ice time. He feels strongly that the injury will be a mere blip, more than any kind of setback, as he works to return to the lineup.
And as he returned to the ice this week, Buium was buoyed by the fact that a number of injured players were also back on skates. Marco Rossi has played just eight games for the Canucks since being part of the Hughes trade. Brock Boeser and Nils Höglander both missed time leading into the break. 
So Buium wants to see what the hockey club looks like with most of its roster available for game action.
“It’s always tough with injuries and it doesn’t matter what team you’re on,” Buium said. “You never want guys to miss games, especially important players. Marco’s a hell of a player. It has sucked to have him out. But it’s cool to see everyone back on the ice and maybe now we can see what we can be with a full roster.”
With five players away at the Olympics, the Canucks haven’t had enough bodies on hand at practices this week to run line drills and get a sense of what the coaches are thinking in terms of what the lineup might look like when the team faces the Jets next week.
But this much is clear: Zeev Buium wants to be part of the final 25-game push to the finish line, hoping to pick up where he left off before his extended break.
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