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Canucks’ Johnson embraces new reality of NHL economics with Buium mega deal

Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Jeff Paterson

Sep 5, 2026, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 5, 2026, 13:53 EDT

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Like most in the hockey world, Vancouver Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson has been forced to wrap his head around the new economic realities that have emerged in an escalating salary cap era. But rather than get bogged down by the monumental numbers being attached to new contracts this summer, Johnson has tried wherever possible to see opportunities rather than obstacles. That’s why he felt Friday’s maximum term eight-year contract worth close to $75 million was a bet worth placing on promising defenceman Zeev Buium.

Make no mistake, Johnson knows it’s an exorbitant sum for a player with just 76 games on his National Hockey League resume, but the new GM has also come to grips with the fact that it’s simply the cost of doing business in today’s NHL.

“Yeah, it was something that we really batted around a lot and wondered, okay, what really is our threshold at the end of the day to make an investment like this in a player with 70 some games that is very early in his development?” Johnson pondered on a Zoom call with Canucks media. “If you had asked me five years ago if I would ever have considered something like this, my answer would have been immediately no. But I didn’t want to get caught up in some archaic thinking of this, I wanted to get aggressive enough to know where the landscape is going. If we could sit and really have a conversation about Zeev the player, but also the person, and we could get to a number that maybe we felt that is maybe admittedly overpaying right now, but being a really good deal down the road, we were aggressive in exploring this as much as we could to see if we could get something done.”

And so late Friday afternoon heading – fittingly heading into the Labour Day long weekend – Johnson and the Canucks got down to business. The deal is eight years and carries an annual average value of $9.38 million. Buium, who will turn 21 in early December, will play out the final season of his entry level contract and will then get a raise ten times the $966K he’ll make in 2026-27.

And as Johnson is quick to point out, Buium is going to have to grow into the new contract. The Canucks are willing to accept that it’s a player-friendly deal on the front end, but hope that as the cap rises and Buium develops into the player they believe he’ll be, that there will be value in the pact for the hockey club down the road.

“This contract isn’t about Zeev the player today or tomorrow,” Johnson explained. “It’s where we see him in three, four and five years. And so it was something that we felt that if both sides could come to an agreement and make a commitment to each other, this was something we’d be excited to get done.”

As Johnson has set out to reshape the culture of the Canucks locker room, he devoted much of his early summer to acquiring quality veterans who will be expected to lead by example. The hope is that lessons learned this season will help players like Buium now and for years to come.

And as much as the Canucks believe in Buium’s on-ice profile, it’s his high character that the club is investing in even more.

“Well, we’ve seen his journey over the years, partly last year of not just his play but who he is as a person. He brought such an energy in a leadership type quality that you really don’t find in a lot of 20 year olds, which is astonishing,” Johnson gushed. “And so, yes, it was a lot about his play and where we see he can go. This is now a journey and we’re going to support him and there’s going to be adversity and there’s going to be ups and downs. He’s going to make mistakes and he’s going to have stretches, but we’re very confident in what he’s going to be as a player. But even ultimately a lot of this commitment is who he is as a person. His ability to impact the dressing room and his overall desire to win is extremely evident. And so yes, we are committing to him. But Zeev, really, in his own words, wanted to make a commitment to the city, to the province, to the fans. He didn’t want anything other than eight years so that he could do this and do it properly.”

In Zeev Buium, the Canucks believe they have a cornerstone piece of their next core. It’s entirely possible that he will be part of the team’s leadership group in the not too distant future and beyond that could very well one day be a captain.

He’s got a maturity that belies his youth, he’s polished and well-spoken and brings a positive energy to the rink every day.

And in Buium, along with the likes of Tom Willander, Liam Öhgren, defenceman Elias Pettersson, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Braeden Cootes, Caleb Malhotra, Adam Novotny and others, Ryan Johnson is banking on this group growing together to one day take the Canucks to new heights.

“I really want to empower some of our youth to be able to shape our direction and work alongside with some of our veterans that have done this before,” he said. “I don’t want those guys to sit and watch. I want them to learn by being active leaders. Zeev has shown that at every level that he’s played at – he’s won World Juniors, he’s won national championships, he’s won world championships. And that’s not that’s not by accident. So this is this commitment to him. And the belief in him is not just a player, but as a person. I think it is a great message for the rest of our group and the entire dressing room that is really important to us. It’s not just the player but the person and their investment, not just into this team, but this community, this province and our fans that means the world to us.”