Zeev Buium is already being handed the kind of responsibility that tells you exactly how the Canucks see him.
Vancouver committed to him with an eight-year, $9.38M AAV contract extension at the beginning of September, and that deal is the clearest sign the team believes he can become a major force on the blueline. The payoff on that kind of move won’t be judged right away, especially with Buium still early in his NHL journey and the Canucks projected to finish near the bottom of the standings. But the organization is clearly betting on him growing into a true difference-maker.
Buium is embracing that challenge.
In Vancouver’s first game of the 2026 pre-season, a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, the 20-year-old logged a team-high 25:05. That kind of workload is exactly what he wants more of.
“[It] means a lot. I want to be a guy that plays those minutes, plays 25, 30 minutes or whatever it is, and at a quality level. If I can give my team a chance to win every night, being out there that much, that’s all I can ask for.”
For Buium, the goal isn’t just heavy ice time. It’s heavy ice time that actually tilts the ice.
“I think personally, just [want] to fine-tune my game and make sure I’m making the right plays consistently, and not being out there for 25 minutes giving up three or four grade-A [chances], but being out there trying to score goals and help the team win.”
That mindset showed up quickly on Thursday. Buium moved from Vancouver’s second power-play unit to the first, and the Canucks’ only goal came off his shot, which Linus Karlsson tipped in on the man-advantage.
The sequence started with Buium behind the net, then through the neutral zone, before he fed Tom Willander. When the puck came back to him, he chose the simple answer and sent it toward goal.
“As a guy who wants to make plays and set guys up, I think sometimes the best play is to shoot,” he said in a media availability. “I think this year, a focus for me will be to shoot more and get more pucks to the net - don’t get them blocked, or if I have a clear lane to shoot, or if I’m coming downhill and maybe I have a pass to the back door but through three sticks, probably better to shoot, right?”
That isn’t a foreign concept for him. During his two seasons at the University of Denver in 2023-24 and 2024-25, Buium was among the NCAA’s top-five goal-scoring defencemen. He scored 11 goals in 42 games as a rookie, which ranked fourth among all collegiate defencemen, then followed it up with 13 goals in 41 games the next season, good for third among NCAA blueliners in 2024-25.
He spent the summer working to sharpen that part of his game even more.
“[I] worked on it a lot this summer [...] just trying to shoot a little bit more, trying to create more traffic to the net.”
The regular season hasn’t started yet, but Buium’s willingness to fire away is already paying off.
In Other News...
Canucks Goalie Squeeze Just Put Another Roster Hope In Danger
The Canucks crowded crease got even tighter Sunday when Vancouver placed Nikita Tolopilo on NHL waivers, a move that immediately put one of the organizations more interesting goalie depth options in limbo. If no team claims him by Monday, he is set to head to the AHLs Abbotsford Canucks, where he would continue his development instead of sticking around the NHL roster.
Tolopilos situation is a reminder of how quickly goalie decisions can cascade during camp, especially after Vancouver claimed Leevi Merilinen on waivers and reshuffled the picture again. For a team trying to sort out its netminding depth, the latest move creates another layer of pressure on a player whose path to the NHL roster had already become much narrower. [Read more 🡒]
Canucks May Have Found A Goalie Project Worth Watching
Leevi Merilinen arrived in Vancouver the hard way, claimed off waivers after his play slipped with the Ottawa Senators. Even so, the Canucks are not treating him like a flier to stash and forget. They see enough in his earlier NHL work to make him a worthwhile project, and that kind of low-cost goaltending bet can matter for a team always looking for stability behind its crease.
What makes Merilinen interesting is less the short-term numbers than the shape of his game. Vancouver is sorting through the traits that could help him stick, especially his aggressiveness and positioning, while also weighing where the rough edges still show. If the Canucks can refine those parts of his game, they may have found a goalie worth developing rather than just another waiver claim passing through. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Are Juggling A Roster Issue Calgary Fans Should Watch
Edmontons preseason has offered a little bit of everything, from an emergency backup role for Brett Epp to encouraging work in goal from Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi. The Oilers have also been sorting through the edges of their roster, with the defense group showing useful depth and the forward mix still giving them a few things to sort out before opening night.
The bigger question for Vancouver, though, is how Edmonton handles the center position if Jason Dickinsons injury situation lingers. Alongside that uncertainty, the Oilers have been linked through credible media reports to Montreals Kirby Dach, a right-handed center whose fit would speak to their search for more stability down the middle. It is the kind of roster wrinkle that can shift quickly, and one the Canucks will be watching closely. [Read more 🡒]