Article: Zeev Buium Is A Flawed But NHL-Ready Player

[Protec]

24 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

Sounds like Buium is practicing with Bogo on L3. PP1

No determination yet if he'll be in for game 1 but sounds promising.

I suggested a Buium/Bogo combination. That's a good pair if you asked me. Rookie and veteran. Power and agility. Straightforward and shifty. Beard and no-beard. Right and left. Like the opposite game but for defense pairings. Mixture of qualities. 

[Enforceror]

1 hour ago, Protec said:

I suggested a Buium/Bogo combination. That's a good pair if you asked me. Rookie and veteran. Power and agility. Straightforward and shifty. Beard and no-beard. Right and left. Like the opposite game but for defense pairings. Mixture of qualities. 

I like it too, at least with our current group. Maybe after we see what we have and what chemistry exists we can look to some other pairings.

[Will D. Ness]

Bogo and Merrill were awful because they both lacked speed.  I thought Bogo and Chisholm were pretty good earlier in the year and that dynamic should be similar with Zeev... if not better.  

[Up North Guy]

On 4/17/2025 at 5:40 PM, Will D. Ness said:

Bogo and Merrill were awful because they both lacked speed.  I thought Bogo and Chisholm were pretty good earlier in the year and that dynamic should be similar with Zeev... if not better.  

Zeev is a much better puck handler. Hopefully his lack of NHL experience won't set him back. He will make mistakes and Vegas is too good to miss them.

[Enforceror]

So what do we do with Chisolm? Yeah we picked him up off waivers but he seems like he holds a small amount of trade value now for a team trying to build defense. We won't really have the roster space once Buium and Jiricek join. Of the three bottom D guys, BOGO is #1 and Chis vs. Merrill is a stalemate IMO. A 25 year old D-man that has justifiably held an NHL position for the whole year (yeah ok he sat some games)...

 

[M_Nels]

1 hour ago, Up North Guy said:

Zeev is a much better puck handler. Hopefully his lack of NHL experience won't set him back. He will make mistakes and Vegas is too good to miss them.

Can be maddening how many times breakouts stall or get broken up because Merrill can’t complete a crisp pass or prematurely panics and just lobs it out. 

[Trade Deadline Hero]

On 4/16/2025 at 10:17 PM, Mateo3xm said:

 

You are obviously new here. You are very similar to Theodore Donald "Donny" Kerabatsos from the movie The Big Lebowski. You know the guy that interjects halfway through the conversation because he wasn't listening most of the time, then asks questions and Walter tells him "shut the fuck up Donny"? 

I like a lot of what pewter has said on other things but on prospects it seems like he's always shitting on them despite some pretty incredible things some of them have done. If you weren’t so new and like “Donny” you’d know that this has been an ongoing debate between us two for a while now. I have reading comprehension issues? You must have missed the #peakprospectinflation.

 

“You made it clear, size doesn’t matter to you. You may even prefer them small. No shame here.” 

Once again Donny, you obviously haven’t been here very long but yet here you are making yourself look like a smooth brain. Just about everyone on here who’s been around a while knows what I think about size. I’ve been saying for a long time this team needs more size especially on the back end. You can’t have a bunch of small players up front either. One or two is ok but they should be extremely talented. If you have more than that you usually get crushed in the playoffs. Buium isn’t small, he’s under the ideal height and maybe weight for a defenseman, but 6ft isn’t small. I better not list all the extremely talented nhl defenders that are 6ft or lower because then pewter with think I’m saying that’s exactly what type of player he’s going to be.

Buium has no discernible flaws. He’s a great skater, solid shot, great passer, unreal hockey IQ, is now a plus level defender after improving that area etc etc. Scott Wheeler ranked him as the second best prospect in the world only to Ivan Demidov. When you have a player that’s done things in college that no modern era player has done, only being 6ft isn’t that big of a deal. 

“Buium's 98 points as an under-20 defenseman playing college hockey are the most in 45 years, topping the likes of Lane Hutson and Luke Hughes”

Great manifesto, hats off to ya. Didn’t realize you were so salty about others challenging you on a shaky take. That’s great that you enjoy writing love notes to Pewter, I’m sorry that my comments made you feel so threatened. I promise, I won’t come between you and your crush. 
 

As for Buium, I think you can stat-sterbate all day about him, but in the end, we have to see him play. I know you don’t think so, but nhl playoff hockey is a different beast than what he’s played in lately. We’ll see how he handles it and fits in. I hope he pulls a Faber and finds his footing immediately. Only time will tell.….so like that’s your opinion man. 

[Will D. Ness]

So in other words, hopefully Zeev abides.

[Protec]

Hopefully the Wild extend Chisholm. He won't be too expensive and a good time to let Merrill go is this Summer. 

The Wild will have to expect injuries on the back end. If GMBG sees a future for others, Chisholm on an affordable contract could be a nice trade asset for next season. I don't think you simply let him walk. He's a good player and hasn't totally proven things either way yet. He's made some good and bad plays this year to at least be near Merrill on the depth chart while much younger and less experienced. This was a good year for him, I think. 

Buium has all the boxes checked for a prospect out of NCAA. He is an impact guy and potentially a game breaker. MN doesn't have a dynamic offensive guy on the back end at all. Their closest sniff was Dumba or perhaps the Klingberg experiment. We can see the difference here with Zeev. IQ and skating aren't a problem so I don't see him having any issues there. Durability and size could be less than you'd want for corners, net-front, and board-battles in NHL playoffs. 

Overall, MN needs him now. They get very little offense from their top 4 defense. A boost on the 3rd pair could be pretty great. 

[mnfaninnc]

On 4/15/2025 at 6:46 AM, MacGyver said:

I'm still trying to figure out who Crotty is!

That's the funny thing about your post, Crotty is his real name! I like some of the nicknames because they're easier to type. Buium just does not roll off the fingers very well. Zeev always ends up with an e at the end for me. Zebra, however, is pretty easy to type.