Article: Zeev Buium Pick Is A Marriage Of Wild Needs And Best Player Available

[Will D. Ness]

Bigger picture though... yeah I'm concerned we are painting ourselves into a corner with a gluttonous abundance of diminutive but highly talented prospects and the only exception being a guy that can't get ice time (Stramel).  

We need more size in our prospect pool.  

[Willy the poor boy]

17 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

It fell with Buium, who's name just does not type off the keyboard well.

Boom, boom, out go the lights!

[Krotz the Wall]

Hey, all! Been a very long time. Loved that Zeev fell to the Wild at 12. His skill and ability are clearly high level, and I honestly think that the kid is still growing. The funny thing about the comments here is that most of the D prospects that came off the board before him have major question marks about their ability develop key aspects of their game if they are going to be major contributors. Several have concerns about their ability to read the game. Two don’t play defense. One has almost no offense. Another has their ability to have their offense translate, while needing to improve their skating. Buium fell because he’s currently 6 ft and 186 pounds… He ranked out as one of the highest offensive prospects, with shutdown defensive capabilities, and an ability to elevate his play to take over games. He’s one of the best prospects, at the time of drafting, that the Wild have made. Everyone seems to be bummed that a composite top 5 pick was available for the Wild to pick.

 

Cheer up! Plenty of time for doom and gloom later.

[Mateo3xm]

6 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

BPA at 12 is a fair assessment and it was the right pick.  Excellent pick really.  

My concerns are that Zeev isn't built for playoff hockey and the Wild have once again fallen into the trap of drafting the "smaller dude who fell in the draft".

Are we putting together a team of small speedy guys that are just going to be bowling pins when the game tightens up in the playoffs?  

Florida basically went to the drawing board to get rid of their "high flying presidents trophy team" and did a 180 to create their "nose to the grindstone disciplined team".  The results speak for themselves.

Great pick though, and worst case is he becomes a valued asset.

I get what you’re saying completely but this was absolutely the right pick and by far the best available pick. He’s a true 6ft. His mom played pro basketball in Israel, his brother is 6ft 3in and his dad looks to be about 6’2. Very small chance but maybe he’s not done growing. Either way when you have a player this talented you take him to sacrifice size especially since he’s at least 6ft tall.

[mnfaninnc]

On 6/29/2024 at 1:56 PM, Will D. Ness said:

First off, let's just make this clear:  I think the pick was excellent.  I think Zeev is perceived as a high value skilled guy and the situation called for the pick.  I am thinking giving up a 3rd is insurance well spent too.

The question is if he can play defense.  

5 GM's are thinking he can't.   Bigger guys like Yakemchuk or Dickenson have a better balance of size and skill and are the kind of defenseman you want (ie Josi) to have in playoff hockey.  Sure there are unicorns like Makar and Heiskanen that are the whole package but it is a gamble to bet that Zeev is going to that calibre.

But a gamble you take at 12 for sure. 

Will, on this part I am not overly concerned. As a freshman, Buium did this for the National Champion Denver team. He did it in a very good NCAA Conference. He played the most minutes of any skater in the league. He was required to shut down other team's top lines too. He did this a league up from major jrs. 

He did have to handle bigger players and he was able to at worst hold his own. It sounds like he's able to beat them with his brain, stick, and skating ability, much like Brodin can.

Unfortunately, it's not his size that is the issue, it's the size of all of our left D prospects. That's what worries me, Brackett has got this prototype guy that he consistently goes after. Maybe we can trade for size later when a guy is D+2 or 3. You've got a better handle on those guys developed later. 

I do foresee us trading out some of the 4 developing high picks to get some variety on the back end. Now we need a bonafide defensive coaching specialist that can really mold these guys into puck moving defenders that other teams covet.

[mnfaninnc]

On 6/29/2024 at 4:45 PM, Krotz the Wall said:

Hey, all! Been a very long time.

Krotz, welcome back! Hopefully your not just in for a quick visit and stay in a cave for another year.

[mnfaninnc]

On 6/29/2024 at 5:13 PM, Mateo3xm said:

He’s a true 6ft. His mom played pro basketball in Israel, his brother is 6ft 3in and his dad looks to be about 6’2. Very small chance but maybe he’s not done growing. Either way when you have a player this talented you take him to sacrifice size especially since he’s at least 6ft tall.

His brother looked ripped at the interview on Friday night. Usually, little brothers work harder to out do their older brothers in about everything. It's an "anything you can do, I can do better" type of thing. I have no doubt that Zeev will be headed to the gym a lot this summer and at Denver. It wouldn't surprise me if he ended next season around 195, and added an inch in height. 

[Will D. Ness]

14 hours ago, mnfaninnc said:

Unfortunately, it's not his size that is the issue, it's the size of all of our left D prospects. That's what worries me, Brackett has got this prototype guy that he consistently goes after. Maybe we can trade for size later when a guy is D+2 or 3. You've got a better handle on those guys developed later. 

I do foresee us trading out some of the 4 developing high picks to get some variety on the back end. Now we need a bonafide defensive coaching specialist that can really mold these guys into puck moving defenders that other teams covet.

It's not just the size of our LD prospects but of our entire prospect pool.  I don't know if it necessarily is Brackett just continually drafting a type, or just a fact that we are constantly drafting at a spot where most of the size/skill guys are gone.

It probably is both.  I do think that the saving grace to continually drafting these guys is that we are going have assets that many teams value... and like you say, we can use them to possibly bring in what we need.

Problem is that we are going to need these guys now.  Window of opportunity is opening and the clock is going to start ticking.  This is why we are shopping Rossi IMO.  We have glaring holes.

Now about Zeev.  Dude - I like the hype and I like the pre draft ranking and I like the championships and I like the offensive stats and all that.  What I don't like is that 5 GM's called bullshit on the hype and the offense and the championships and drafted other defenseman.  Then comes Philly saying... nope.

Is it just circumstance?  If so we are lucky.  I hope Zeev is as advertised... it would be awesome to have a Heiskanen or Makar calibre guy... but I'm not going to get giddy until I see it on the ice in a Wild uniform.

[mnfaninnc]

1 hour ago, Will D. Ness said:

It probably is both.  I do think that the saving grace to continually drafting these guys is that we are going have assets that many teams value... and like you say, we can use them to possibly bring in what we need.

Problem is that we are going to need these guys now.  Window of opportunity is opening and the clock is going to start ticking.  This is why we are shopping Rossi IMO.  We have glaring holes.

With the players I listed, we won't be able to keep them all. There has been a blueprint to doing this. Nashville brought in Phil Housley to coach the defense. He was not only in charge of the Nashville D, but also in charge of the D within the organization. As they kept churning out defenders, they could trade established ones for ones coming up. 

When he left the team, their pipeline dried up. Of course, results lag and they still had a couple of players to come up, but after that they've been less than impressive. 

Now, serious question: While we've discussed that the Ukraine-Russia conflict has had an effect on drafting players from Russia, there's also another conflict in the news. Since Zeev's mom played basketball in Israel, it would suggest that the Buium's have some sort of Jewish heritage. Could that fact, or perception have had an effect on Zeev dropping in the draft?

Think about all the protest we've had on college campuses around that say free Palestine. Think about the cities they've been in. I haven't heard anything of this in Canada, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened also. There have been a lot of people that have wanted to just remain more than an arm's length distance from the topic entirely. Could this have happened with some NHL teams?

Most things are intertwined, and are not stand alone issues. One thing general affects several other things directly or indirectly. Attitudes can especially be influenced. Whichever side anyone is on is not addressed in this question. What is being addressed is if there may have been some bias to the player due to heritage? 

[Imyourhuckleberry]

4 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

I haven't heard anything of this in Canada, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened also. There have been a lot of people that have wanted to just remain more than an arm's length distance from the topic entirely. Could this have happened with some NHL teams?

Flo Hockey suggested it was more of a general Canadian team thing where they prefer Canadian players since they have more likelihood of wanting to stick around with the drafted team after their first bigger contract while US players may wish to get back to the US once they become unrestricted.

[Protec]

I don't think there was anything holding teams back from Buium and if there was, that's their mistake. He's a better prospect at his age than Faber and if he ends up anywhere near Faber or Fox, MN will be golden. I think he's got some time to grow and mature but he's MN's best thing after Chisholm for free. 

[bisopher]

7 hours ago, Will D. Ness said:

Now about Zeev.  Dude - I like the hype and I like the pre draft ranking and I like the championships and I like the offensive stats and all that.  What I don't like is that 5 GM's called bullshit on the hype and the offense and the championships and drafted other defenseman.  Then comes Philly saying... nope.

Fair point, but remember that Faber lasted into the second round, so a lot of teams found "better" D options that i bet they'd gladly exchange for him today. 

 

GMs and organizations see what they want to see and like what they like.  Heaven knows enough people on HW have called out Guerin and Brackett for just that.

[Protec]

Da Buoy. 🙂