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Zeev Buium emerged as a future leader throughout rookie season with Canucks: Year in Review
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Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Tyson Cole
Apr 28, 2026, 18:31 EDT
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Heading into his rookie season, Zeev Buium was eager to contribute to a Stanley Cup-contending Minnesota Wild team. After getting a quick taste of NHL action in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, in which he picked up an assist in four games played, Buium had the reins to develop into the future top offensive option on the Wild’s backend with a strong rookie season.
But of course, that’s not how everything played out.
In mid-December, just under a week after he turned 20, Buium had his world rocked when he was the big piece of a trade that saw Quinn Hughes head to Minnesota. To this point of the season, Buium had three goals and 11 assists for 14 points in 31 games. He was a feature on the Wild’s power play, with eight of his 14 points coming on the man advantage. Buium’s totals before the trade had him in a tie for seventh in rookie scoring, and second only to Matthew Schaefer in defensive rookie scoring.
And thus, Buium was moved and began the second chapter of his rookie season in Vancouver.

Zeev Buium’s season

As fans began to learn more about Buium following the deal, many were hopeful he would be the Hughes replacement. It was understood that those were massive shoes to fill, but Buium made a rocking first impression that had fans excited for the young defenceman.
Buium joined his new team on the road in New Jersey for his Canucks debut. The San Diego, California native was given the top spot on the power play right away, and they were given an opportunity in the first minute of the game. Buium picked up a second assist on Jake DeBrusk’s power play goal, and followed that up with his first tally as a Canuck five minutes later. This goal would stand as the eventual game-winning goal.
The Canucks went on to win four consecutive games following the acquisition of Buium, Marco Rossi and Liam Öhgren. However, outside of that Devils game, the points did not follow. Over the following 12 games, Buium had just two assists to show for it and finished that stretch as a minus-seven rating. This isn’t uncommon for a rookie defenceman trying to find his way not only in the league, but on a new, underperforming team.
Head Coach Adam Foote decided that it was best for Buium’s development to sit him down for a game on January 12 against the Montreal Canadiens. Buium found his way back into the lineup the following game, where he was heavily relied upon, logging 21:13 minutes of ice time. And in the next game, Buium found his way back onto the scoresheet, picking up an assist on the lone Canucks goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Once the Canucks and Buium returned home, he shared what it was like being a healthy scratch for the first time in his hockey career:
“It gives you a little bit of chip on your shoulder because you never want to miss a game for that; that’s frustrating. I mean, it sucks. I never want it to happen again; I didn’t want it to happen in the first place. But I talked to Footer about it, and he just really wanted me to reset. He’s like, ‘We’ve been on a losing streak, it’s good for you to look [and watch the game].’ Do I want to say I agree with him? Probably not, because I don’t want to be scratched, right? But he’s played this game. I trust him.”
As the season was ramping up ahead of the Olympic break, Buium’s game was starting to pick up. He looked like he was settling in a bit more to his new situation, and that started to translate on the ice, including this nice move and follow-up goal against the Devils.
But in the following game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on January 25, Buium was struck in the face with a puck in the first period. He went down the tunnel but returned to the game wearing a bubble mask. Despite finishing the game, Buium would be out until after the Olympic break with a fractured cheekbone. Luckily for Buium, the upcoming Olympic break meant he would only miss five games before returning in late February.
The next month stretch was a struggle for Buium. He picked up just two assists over an 11-game stretch, but none were a bigger struggle than a game on March 19 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. One of the league’s best teams came to town, bullied them, stole their lunch money, and walked out of Rogers Arena with a 6-2 victory.
After the final buzzer, I noticed Buium and Tom Willander sitting on the bench well after the rest of their teammates went down the tunnel to the locker room, staring blankly ahead at the empty sheet of ice. The next day after practice, I spoke with Buium about this moment. Instead of talking about that, Buium opened up about how the team needs to be more connected and really spoke like a true leader.
“I really do think a lot of it is culture. Like my U17 year at NTDP, we won five games, we were the worst team ever. Seriously, the stats are out there. And then the next year, we were the best team of all time. We had the best power play, best PK, all of our centres had the best faceoff percentage, we had the most goals for, the least goals against, won the Championship at the end of the year, we won 14 straight games against College teams, which is unheard of.
“And it wasn’t a different team. It’s not like we became so much bigger and stronger the next year. I think the fact that we became a team, we became brothers, we actually cared for each other, we wanted to see each other succeed, you want to do it for the guy next to you. When you do all that, and you care so much about winning, like when I was at Denver, the biggest thing was every guy there I loved, the coaches I loved, everybody loved everybody. The biggest thing was we didn’t want to disappoint each other, and losing was disappointing.
“I think we need to get to that point. Right now it’s tough because I think everybody wants to do that, but at the same time, you’re young, you want to prove yourself, there’s a lot of other things going on. You know how it’s been here, a lot of things have gone on the last two years. I think now that that’s kind of settled down, we’re finding that in our team, you can see the culture shifting into something bigger and better and everyone’s on board.”
And then we saw a little bit of that newfound culture from Buium when he, Willander, and Elias Pettersson (D) held “fight club” after Canucks practice a few days later.
Buium put that practice to good use, as he logged his first NHL fight a few days later against Brandt Clarke and the Los Angeles Kings.
After this, the locker room seemed lighter. It finally appeared like Vancouver was a fun place to play again because of the character of these new young guys, led by Buium. Sure, the results were the same, but the process seemed better. And with that, the results came. Over the final 11 games of the season, Buium looked freer and was willing to let his creativity shine, and that translated to the scoresheet. He went on to tally four points over that stretch, including one of the goals of the season:

The final stats

With big shoes to fill coming over to Vancouver in the Hughes trade, Buium did not live up to the point totals. However, as the season went on, he became more comfortable in his new destination and seemed to fully embrace the team’s new direction and his role in it. Is three goals and 12 points in 45 games underwhelming? A little bit.
But his understanding of the situation and desire to turn this ship around in Vancouver make him a very important piece as the organization looks to reshape their culture. And Buium will be the face of that turnaround based on what we saw in his first season with the Canucks.
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