‘Happy with the return’: Canucks inspired by Buium’s potential

NEWARK, N.J. – Former Anaheim Mighty Ducks coach Ron Wilson as soon as instructed the story about calling into his workplace a few younger gamers, Chad Kilger and Oleg Tverdovsky, to tell them that that they had been traded to Winnipeg for Teemu Selänne.

“I’m trying to be serious and somber because they’re sad that they’re getting traded and going to Winnipeg,” Wilson stated. “But the entire time I’m attempting to not smile as a result of all I can assume is: ‘We’re getting Teemu Selänne!’”

If anybody was smiling it was Minnesota Wild normal supervisor Bill Guerin as a result of he received Hughes, the celebrity defencemen, within the four-for-one swap with Vancouver.

But Canucks coach Adam Foote admitted he felt rather a lot higher concerning the commerce when he realized upon the workforce’s arrival in New York on Friday that elite defence prospect Zeev Buium, projected to change into a participant just like Hughes, headlined the haul getting back from the Wild.

“I had no idea,” Foote stated. “And when I got off the plane and I heard, I was like, ‘Holy.’ I wasn’t excited to leave Huggy. I’m not happy to lose Huggy, but I’m real happy with the return.”

Foote stated he has identified Buium since he was 13 years previous and attended a summer season growth camp for shoppers of Denver-based agent Kurt Overhardt. Foote labored as a growth coach for Overhardt, checking in with younger NHL gamers through the season and operating camps in the summertime for the agent’s youthful prospects.

Buium was what each coach or trainer hopes for: a gifted pupil who wished to be taught and simply received it, somebody who may exhibit to the group what was being taught.

“He was demonstrating a lot of my drills,” Foote defined. “I might do skating at first, and I might present them box-outs. He was within the youthful group then; he wasn’t with the large boys. But he was simply very coachable. He simply did every thing. He was a sponge. He was an ideal skater. You may inform him as soon as … and he simply received it.

“You can project if a kid is going to play in junior or college, but at age 13, no, I couldn’t project what he is doing now. But I saw him grow once he hit college. And I was like, yeah, he’s got a great opportunity to play (in the NHL).”

And now Buium is taking part in for Foote, within the NHL. And in Buium’s first Canucks follow right here Saturday, he took Hughes’ place because the quarterback on the first-unit energy play.

“There’s a lot of things that he did teach me that, you know, stuck with me until this point,” Buium stated. “And I still think about them. So it’s really cool to come kind of full circle.”

New Canucks Buium, Liam Oghren and centre Marco Rossi practised on the Prudential Center and may play for Vancouver on Saturday towards the New Jersey Devils, though Rossi was nonetheless listed on injured reserve regardless of skating between first-line wingers Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk.

Canucks winger Conor Garland was a teammate of Buium, who turned 20 on Sunday, when the United States gained gold medals on the world championships in Sweden final spring to finish a 95-year championship drought.

“Confident, in a good way,” Garland stated of the prodigy. “I believe earlier than the semifinals sport towards Sweden, he got here as much as me, ‘I’ve never lost at anything.’ He’s like, ‘I have five gold medals. We’re going to win.’

“His dad was telling my dad the same thing. He’s like, ‘We’ve won everything, we’re fine.’ I was just nervous and he was confident as could be going out for overtime. He was the turning point for us in the quarterfinals game. He took over a shift, made a great play. So I was really impressed by him. When I saw his name in the trade, I was like, you know, that’s a really good piece. He’s going to be a good player for a long time.”

“I don’t know if I was that arrogant,” Buium smiled when requested about Garland’s anecdote. “Yeah, I think I probably said something along those lines. Up to that point, I hadn’t lost. Teams that I was on, we’ve won (but) it was just a joke.”

After profitable a U.S. faculty hockey title with the University of Denver in 2024 – following his win with Team USA at 2023 world Under-18s and earlier than his gold medal on the 2025 world junior event – Buium was drafted twelfth total by the Minnesota Wild.

The six-foot defenceman’s worth has rocketed since then, in order that Buium was not solely the Wild’s prime prospect however one of many best prospects in hockey when Minnesota traded its prized rookie to the Canucks with Rossi, Ohgren and a first-round choose in June.

“It’s not the Stanley Cup,” Buium stated of the Americans’ historic win final spring, “however I believe if you play and get to play in these massive video games and people massive alternatives and large moments, you discover ways to deal with your self. You discover ways to, you realize, management the atmosphere and the workforce, and also you get that sense of the workforce that is going to win versus the workforce that is not.

“You simply have a way when you realize a workforce can win. And I believe that is what I’ve been lucky sufficient to form of have.

“I think when you can kind of fall back on ‘I’ve done this before, I’ve played good in these big moments, I’ve won these big games,’ you feel confident. You can kind of fall back on that when things might not be going as well, so I think it’s a good thing, especially early on. I think the next step is trying to bring that here and win a Cup.”

Buium has three objectives and 14 factors in his first 31 NHL video games, and can be minus-five at five-on-five with an expected-goals-for of 44.7 per cent that was among the many lowest on the Wild. One week faraway from his teenage years, Buium clearly has a lot to find out about defending.

But his ability with the puck and, particularly, his excellent skating agility had been evident in a single follow along with his new teammates. Buium was the difference-maker within the Wild’s commerce provide – the world-class prospect who simply wasn’t obtainable to the Canucks from different groups.

Buium was shocked by the commerce, however stated the upheaval is simpler to just accept as a result of it was Quinn Hughes for whom he was dealt.

“I think when you get drafted to a team, you fall in love with them,” he defined. “You fall in love with everything about it, and you want to be part of it. And you never think that those things are going to happen. But they do. It’s a business; I think we all know that. They couldn’t pass up a player like Quinn. And I also feel very fortunate that Vancouver felt strongly enough about me to put me in that (trade), and kind of say something about me, in a way.”

Later, he added: “When you’re in a trade for Quinn Hughes, you definitely could feel good about yourself.”

Foote and the Canucks are blissful to have him. But clearly, Vancouver gamers will miss Hughes, who was their captain and pal along with the very best participant in franchise historical past.

“It’s always tough, and especially when you get close with somebody,” Hughes’ long-time defence accomplice, Filip Hronek, stated. “I think we became really good friends. So yeah, it sucks, but also it’s part of the business.”

“I don’t have any brothers, but we were pretty close,” Garland stated of his one-year-old son’s godfather. “So day-to-day will be a little off for a little bit. The guys are giving me a hard time today, like, you know, (I will) be walking around the mall by myself. Like last night. . . I was rating all the right-handed defencemen in the league in my room by myself. That’s what we (Garland and Hughes) usually do together. Just argue over, you know, who would you take? He’s the greatest guy. Goes to a great team. But, you know, we’ve got to move on as a group. We got some really good pieces back.”

Canucks president Jim Rutherford has made it clear the Canucks are taking a step again to reload and get youthful, however hopes the workforce shall be again competing for a playoff spot inside “a couple of years.”

“We kind of always knew that Huggy maybe would be leaving,” goalie Thatcher Demko stated. “It’d be pretty naive to think otherwise. I have my contract. He’s where he is. I think we got a few good players out of it, so I don’t think this is, like, doomsday or anything. I’d say it’s more of a pivot than a breakdown.”

The Canucks had been nonetheless working via Rossi’s medical standing Saturday afternoon and might want to transfer one other participant off their roster to activate the centre from the injured listing. Lukas Reichel went on waivers Saturday. . . Winger Nils Hoglander missed follow on account of sickness however Foote expects him to play on Sunday. But prime centre Elias Pettersson, who skated on his personal earlier than follow after which was a partial participant with the primary group, will miss a fourth straight sport. . . Foote has no preliminary plans to call a captain to interchange Hughes, however stated Hronek will get an ‘A.’

How the Canucks practised