Denver sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium has signed a three-year, entry-level contract beginning this season with the Minnesota Wild.
Buium is expected to make his NHL debut on Tuesday night in the Wild’s regular-season finale against the Anaheim Ducks at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
The DU sophomore was named the NCHC player of the year during the 2024-25 season, and he led all NCAA defensemen in scoring with 48 points while ranking second among all skaters with 35 assists — only teammate Jack Devine had more helpers in the country (44). A unanimous selection on the NCHC all-conference first team for the second consecutive campaign, Buium recorded a career-high 13 goals and registered multiple points 13 times. He picked up points in 30 of 41 games he played and tallied 38 points (13 goals, 25 assists) in the final 31 outings.
A Hobey Baker Award hat trick finalist — Denver’s first since Bobby Brink in 2022 — Buium finished third overall in scoring and blocked shots (50), second in penalty minutes (44), and his plus-17 rating was tied for the fourth highest on the squad. He was also named a first team all-American for the second straight season, becoming one of 14 repeat all-Americans in Denver’s history and joined Devine as the school’s first repeat first-team members since Henrik Borgstrom in 2017 and 2018.
Buium garnered NCAA Northeast Regional most outstanding player honors this postseason after combining for five points on two goals and three assists in victories against No. 2-seed Providence and No. 1 Boston College on March 28-30 to help Denver secure its second straight Frozen Four berth and its sixth trip to the final weekend in the last nine seasons. The rearguard tallied in both outings of regionals to stretch his goal streak to a personal-best three games, and he picked up his fifth three-point outing of 2024-25 with a goal and two assists against the Friars in the regional semifinals.
The San Diego, Calif., native began the campaign with three assists on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage and scored three goals on Nov. 15 at North Dakota to become the first Pioneer defenseman to record a hat trick since Ryan Caldwell on Feb. 14, 2004 versus Minnesota State. It was the 10th hat trick by a D-man in school history and was just the third three-goal outing by a rearguard in the NCHC — Western Michigan’s Ronnie Attard had the previous two on Oct. 19, 2021 at Colgate and Feb. 4, 2022 at Colorado College. Buium also recorded a trio of points on Nov. 9 vs. Lindenwood (three assists) and Jan. 10 vs. Miami (goal, two assists) and owns 10 such three-point contests in his collegiate career.
He was named NCHC defenseman of the week three times this past year and six times in his career, including earning the honor following a four-point weekend (goal, three assists) against Miami on Jan. 10-11. Those were his first games back at Denver after helping the United States win its second straight gold medal at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship. The defenseman served as an alternate captain on Team USA, averaged the second-most ice time among all players at the tournament (25:13) and had assists on both the game-tying and overtime-winning goals in the championship final against Finland.
A repeat winner of the NCHC offensive defenseman of the year award in 2024-25, Buium finishes his career ranked 10th all-time in scoring by a DU rearguard with 98 career points (24 goals, 74 assists). It was the most points by a Pioneer blueliner in their first two seasons since Greg Woods had a pair of 52-point campaigns as a freshman and sophomore in 1975-76 and 1976-77.
Buium reached the half-century mark in his freshman campaign at Denver in 2023-24, recording his 50th point on an assist in the Frozen Four national championship game against No. 1 Boston College to help the Pioneers capture its NCAA-record 10th national title. He finished the year with 11 goals and 39 assists in 42 games.
He ranked second on the Pioneers in scoring behind Devine last campaign, and it was the first 50-point season by a Denver freshman since 1983-84 (John McMillan, 57; Dwight Mathiasen, 51). Overall, it was just the sixth time a Denver rookie reached the mark and the third instance by a Pioneer blueliner, with him joining Craig Redmond (54) in 1982-83 and Greg Woods (52) in 1975-76. The Californian was recognized as the NCHC rookie of the year and was a finalist for the Tim Taylor Award as the national rookie of the year.
Making his collegiate debut on Oct. 7, 2023 at Alaska, Buium recorded his first point on Oct. 8 at UAF with a goal and also added an assist for his first of 25 career multi-point contests. Buium went on a personal-long 12-game point streak (four goals, 17 assists) from Nov. 3-Dec. 9, 2023 for the longest by a freshman defenseman in the NCAA in the last 21 years (online databases presently don’t go back any further than 2002), surpassing Boston University’s Lane Hutson’s previous long of 11 games in a row from Dec. 11, 2022-Feb. 6, 2023. It was also the longest streak ever by a defenseman in NCHC history.
Buium registered a career high in points with four assists on Nov. 25, 2023 against Yale, tied for the most helpers in a game during the season by a Pioneer and the most by a DU freshman defenseman since at least 2002. The performance also marked just the third such instance since 2016 by a rookie D-man in the NCAA (Boston University’s Lane Hutson, Feb. 3, 2023 vs. Maine; Minnesota’s Brock Faber, 5, March 27, 2021 vs. Omaha). Overall, it was just the 14th time that a Denver defenseman recorded at least four helpers in a game and marked just the fifth occurrence since 2004-05. He went on to tie his career high in points with one goal and three assists on Jan. 20, 2024 at Omaha.
Overall, Buium registered 12 multi-point games and tallied three or more points on five occasions as a freshman. He tied for the team lead with his brother, Shai, and ranked fourth in the NCAA with a plus-33 rating — the highest ever by a Pioneer since the statistic first began being tracked in 2005-06. He tied for second on DU in power-play scoring with 14 points (goal, 13 assists) and ranked third on the squad with 41 blocked shots.
A product of the U.S. National Team Development Program, Buium helped Team USA to gold medals in each of the last three seasons: 2023 IIHF U18 World Championship and both the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships that were also coached by DU’s David Carle.
A communications major at Denver, Buium has also given back to the local Jewish community. He met with young and aspiring Jewish hockey players from Aish of the Rockies several times over the past two years, and he joined teammate Sam Harris in hosting a “stick and puck” session with those players at DU on Oct. 8, 2024.
Buium was selected in the first round (12th overall) by the Wild in the 2024 NHL Draft. The Pioneer was the first American chosen at last year’s event and is the second-highest draft pick in program history (Craig Redmond, 1984, No. 6 overall, Los Angeles Kings).
He won a pair of championships with the Pioneers in 2023-24 at the Wild’s home arena, Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, earning the NCAA title on April 13, 2024 and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff tournament on March 23, 2024. Buium was named to both the NCAA Frozen Four and the Frozen Faceoff all-tournament teams that year, and he tallied twice, including his first overtime-winning goal, in the conference semifinals versus St. Cloud State on March 22, 2024.
