After a slow first stretch of the season, Vancouver Canucks defenceman Zeev Buium says the game is starting to come back to him.
Buium, who signed an eight-year, $75.04 million extension in early September, has had a quiet opening to the year. In 11 games, he has two assists and eight shots on goal while averaging 20:38 of ice time. He opened the season on the top pairing with Filip Hronek and was regularly playing more than 20 minutes through the first seven games, but some defensive mistakes came with the territory for a 20-year-old blueliner still learning the NHL game with fewer than 100 games under his belt.
Over the past four games, head coach Manny Malhotra has dropped him to the third pair. The minutes have come down, but Buium’s underlying numbers have ticked up, and he says the shift has helped him settle in.
“It’s growing,” Buium told Daily Faceoff Vancouver when asked where his confidence level is at this point of the season. “I mean, at the start of the year, I just felt like I was almost like hesitant with everything.
It didn’t matter what line I was playing against; it was just like a thing within myself. I think the last couple of games I’ve started to find my game, use my legs, try to create offence, and try to break pucks out cleaner and stuff like that, and join the rush when I can.
Just all those little details that I think make my game who I am.
“Like I said, just try to find that consistency in my game,” Buium continued. “It’s nice having these older guys around.
And even over the course of one season, you’re gonna have games where you play like absolute sh*t; you’re gonna have games where you play amazing, and you have games where you’re just average. So just trying to find consistency.
I hate being a player who’s up and down. I feel like I got here by being kind of more like this [motioning his hand in a steady straight line].
So just trying to find this [motioning his hand on an incline] and really only go here. And sometimes you’re going to dip, but I think I’m starting to kind of find that confidence and that level of playmaking that I want to make.”
Buium said he’s not worried about the role itself. Whether he’s getting 25 minutes or 15, the task is the same in his mind: handle his job, help the team and keep building his game.
“Obviously, you never want to get your ice time taken away,” Buium admitted. “But you know, for me, like I said, it’s not my choice of where I play or who I play with.
So just gotta do my job. I think for me, the last couple of games, it’s just clearing my head and playing my game.
I think just trying to find what makes me click and what makes it work for me, whether I’m playing 25 or 15 minutes, and you know, being a good teammate and supporting the guys, and making sure I’m doing my job whenever I’m out there. So, whatever role they have me in, whatever they need me to do, that’s what my job is to do that night.”
The move down the lineup has also reunited him with Luke Schenn, who skated with Buium throughout training camp. That pairing has already sparked comparisons to Schenn’s early-career run alongside Quinn Hughes, and it has given Buium a steadier foundation on the back end.
So far this season, Schenn and Buium have spent just over 30 minutes together at 5-on-5, but the fit has allowed Buium to show more of his offence. Schenn’s presence gives him room to jump into the play, while also offering the kind of defensive support that can help a young defenceman find his footing.
Schenn said he sees the same thing many veterans remember from their own early years.
“I think he’s no different,” Schenn said to Daily Faceoff Vancouver when asked what he’s seeing from Buium this season. “I mean, I was obviously in the same position as a young guy in the league, and you know, sometimes it’s tough.
I mean, from my own experience, you come in, you kind of get away with a lot of things, and you’ve got a lot of good energy and excitement, and you get a long leash, and then next thing you know, sometimes the second season’s tougher. And I personally experienced that, and I just had good veterans around me that helped me, and obviously coaches.
You rely on your family and everything like that. But in terms of [Buium], I think he’s such an elite skater and puck mover and great character guy.
He’s going to have a great long future for sure.”
Buium’s start fits the definition of a rough patch, but the Canucks still have reason to believe in him. He was drafted 12th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft for a reason, and the resume that made him one of the most decorated NCAA defencemen in his age group didn’t disappear overnight.
There will be bumps, especially in a rebuilding environment. But with his confidence climbing and veteran help around him, Buium says he’s beginning to look more like himself again.
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