Zeev Buium is no stranger to being a part of a winning culture, and with that comes a level of confidence in the way he carries himself both on and off the ice.
Drafted 12th overall by the Minnesota Wild in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, Buium was traded to Vancouver back in December. The recently turned 20-year-old has already had several notable accomplishments in his career.
He won back-to-back World Junior Championships, an NCAA Championship, and, most recently, a World Championship for Team USA this past summer. Having experienced being part of so many winning teams early on in his career, Buium has had the opportunity to see firsthand what it takes to create and uphold a winning culture.
“Every single one of those teams, it’s like the same thing. It’s obviously different guys, but it’s the same culture,” Buium said.
Buium credits his time at the University of Denver Men’s Hockey program and head coach David Carle for really instilling the value of culture and why it is such an essential cornerstone for team success. It was the emphasis on building a good culture that resonated with Buium, and part of what led him to decide on Denver being the landing spot for him.
“It doesn’t matter who you are. You could be a really good player, and we might want you really bad, but if you’re not the kind of person that is going to fit in that culture, then they’d rather take somebody else who’d fit in better,” Buium said. “I think that’s what makes it so special.”
Having chosen to accelerate his schooling in order to be eligible for college hockey in his draft year, Buium joined the team as a 17-year-old freshman, hopping in with his older brother Shai, who was in his third season with the team. As daunting as it could be to enter college hockey at just 17 years old, the structure that Carle and the coaching staff had implemented at Denver ensured that every single player on the team was able to feel valued and comfortable to develop and work hard.
“[It] doesn’t matter if you’re a first-rounder, undrafted; you put up 60 points, or if you put up zero,” Buium said. “It starts with David Carle, the way he approaches every day, and he gives everyone the same attention. No one’s getting more than another guy, no one’s going to get off easier than other guys.”
Buium first visited University of Denver at just 13 years old, starting the process that eventually led him to committing to the program years later. He highlighted the confidence that Carle and the staff showed in him early on and how it significantly helped to develop his abilities. The culmination of the solid foundation and belief in Buium’s own abilities, as well as the cultural expectations of the locker room, have factored into how the young defencemen has been able to grow as a player and how he’s been able to continue showing high-level skill in his first full season in the NHL.
“I think the path of my career, they kick started it, and kind of skipped a couple [of] years of my development,” Buium said. “The way that they taught me, the opportunity they gave me, making me earn it at the same time, and trusting me and letting me figure it out.”
The Vancouver Canucks play the first of a back-to-back against the Seattle Kraken tonight at 7:30 p.m. P.T.
Listen to this and much more as Buium joined Chris Faber on the latest episode of the Canucks Insider Podcast.
