The Vancouver Canucks have made their biggest statement yet on the blue line, handing Zeev Buium an eight-year extension worth $75.04 million and a $9.38 million average annual value.
It’s a major investment in a player who arrived in Vancouver as part of the Quinn Hughes blockbuster, and it also throws a bright spotlight back on the price Minnesota paid to land the superstar defenseman last December.
Buium was one of the key pieces in that deal. The Wild sent him, Marco Rossi, Liam Öhgren and their 2026 first-round pick to Vancouver for Hughes. Of that group, Buium stood out as the most significant long-term asset Minnesota gave up.
Before the trade, Buium had already shown why the Wild valued him so highly. He played 31 games for Minnesota last season and posted three goals and 11 assists. His 14 points were tied for second among rookie NHL defensemen at the time of the deal.
He then added another 45 games with Vancouver, scoring three more goals and collecting nine assists. By the time his first full NHL season wrapped up, Buium had totaled six goals and 26 points in 76 games between the two teams.
The 20-year-old’s rise had been building for a while. Minnesota traded up one spot to grab him 12th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft after he slipped farther than expected on draft night.
He followed that with a huge sophomore season at the University of Denver, putting up 48 points in 41 games. That run earned him Hobey Baker Award finalist honors and NCHC Player of the Year before he signed his entry-level contract with Minnesota in April 2025. He later made his NHL debut during the Wild’s 2025 Stanley Cup Playoff run.
Minnesota made the move for Hughes because the payoff was immediate and enormous. Hughes was already a Norris Trophy winner and one of the NHL’s premier defensemen when the Wild got him, and president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin made clear after the trade that giving up players like Buium was painful, even if the chance to land a player of Hughes’ caliber doesn’t come around often.
Vancouver’s thinking was just as clear. Former Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin described Buium as an “extremely talented offensive-minded defenseman” after the trade and pointed to his upside as a future power-play quarterback.
Now the Canucks have backed that belief with a long-term commitment before Buium has even turned 21.
For Minnesota, the new contract doesn’t alter the basic math of the Hughes trade. The Wild knew they were parting with a potential star defenseman to get an established superstar.
But Vancouver’s $75 million bet makes the message impossible to miss: Buium was far more than a throw-in. The Canucks believe he can grow into one of the pillars of their franchise, while the Wild are hoping to agree on an extension with Hughes.
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Shabanov, a former KHL standout, is expected to get a long look next to Kaprizov and Ryan Hartman, which makes his preseason performance especially important. The Wild and people around the club will be watching closely to see whether his game translates quickly enough to handle that responsibility, because this is one of the more interesting roster battles in camp and it could end up reshaping how Minnesota starts the season. [Read more 🡒]