Article: The Buium-Hunt Pairing Could Transform the Wild Blue Line

[Neil Urbanski]

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[Enforceror]

Great article Neil. It seems that Hynes has liked Hunt as well, hope we've found something there.

[Patrick]

If Buim and Hunt continue to develop chemistry I think the Wild need to move on from Middleton. For whatever reason his play making and decisions (see his penalties for example) have been terrible this year. Play Jiri with Brodin, that will allow him to maximize his talent while Brodin does his thing. 

Edited November 9 by Patrick
Misspelled Hunt

[1Brotherbill]

5 hours ago, Patrick said:

If Buim and Hunt continue to develop chemistry I think the Wild need to move on from Middleton. For whatever reason his play making and decisions (see his penalties for example) have been terrible this year. Play Jiri with Brodin, that will allow him to maximize his talent while Brodin does his thing. 

Wish granted.  Middleton is out against Calgary.  See what they pairings are. 

[TheGoosesAreLooses]

I think that Hunt-Buium combo is something to get excited about. Both are playing well and complimenting each other. Even last night, which clearly wasn't an amazing showing for these two, was still better than what we were getting from Bogo and Merrill last year and they have a much higher ceiling if we can develop them. Big IF when it comes to BG's love for benching rookies after a single mistake. I say it is BG because Evason and Hynes seem to have the exact same mantra when it comes to development, "not ready". 

Now Evason is doing really well with a very young Columbus team that looks like they might have something. Our modus operandi with our prospects clearly comes from the top.

[mnfaninnc]

Neil, you nailed this scouting report:

Quote

Hunt is a talented, intelligent player who makes good reads, decisive puck plays, is sound positionally, and doesn’t hesitate to join the rush when he sees an opportunity. He has good feet and a solid center of gravity, and almost always positions himself so he’s facing the play. While Hunt is not an overly powerful or dynamic skater, he has excellent footwork. He makes efficient turns, weight shifts, and pivots, and because he’s always facing the play, his movements are usually in the right direction for a given situation. 

But, the article, I think was written too soon. Watching Faber and Buium last night, to me, trumped the Hunt-Buium pairing. But, Hunt, to me, is much further along than I thought.

To see this, we need to understand the foundation of John Hynes hockey. His underlying belief is you win by playing low event hockey. Hunt, in the last 2 games that I have watched is the poster boy for low event hockey. He calms everything down. I've watched him with 2 different partners, both rookies. You typically do not get low event calmness from a rookie, which Hunt is.

With Buium, the pairing went like a regular pairing in contrast to a 5 alarm fire with everyone running around the defensive zone after multiple turnovers. Buium was really good against NYI, mainly because he had Linus next to him.

Last night, Hunt did the same thing for fellow rookie Jiricek. While Jiri was throwing the puck all over the place and mishandling several plays, Hunt was that wet blanket over the ice that calmed everything down. "No Fires Here" should be his motto. This style will endure him to Hynes, and should Hynes be let go, I would think Hunt would be a trade target at his next stop.

So, now we've got our 5 rookies again. I didn't see Hunt as being one of them, was excited he got picked up on waivers (just because he looked a little better than Chissy when in) and we cannot send him down. For Hunt, I believe he is a mainstay in the lineup. 

I would not mind going 11/7 with him in the lineup and giving Buium a little extra time at forward as ODC had (probably mockingly) suggested. Buium adds something we haven't had, and he can do it on the wing if needed. He's got that special Johansson attribute of carrying the puck up the ice with speed and into the zone, yet, he doesn't have the hot potato response after passing the blue line. 

I'd also like to see Buium put back on PP1.

Now for the roster implication: While it's only been 3 games, Hunt successfully holding his own in the lineup does 1 other thing, it covers a spot which could allow for a Spurgeon trade. What, give up Spurgy?

Yes. Spurgeon will not be one of the defenders that is around (on the ice) when we get into our contention window. He has value left that can help several other franchises. The old adage is to trade a player a year too soon rather than a year too late. Right now, I think Spurgy will fulfill his contract obligations just fine, but I do think we are seeing some cracks in his foundation. His leadership and intangibles can be better used elsewhere at this point, in my opinion. Would we miss him? Yes we would, but I think long term it's the right move, and we need to be looking forward rather than on what he has done. 

My hope is that he will return to the organization much like Goligoski has and perhaps even as part of the coaching staff in Iowa to start. But we NEED to get the new guys acclimated with TOI now for that future to happen. This doesn't take away from anything Spurgy's done for us, he's been great. But it is necessary.

I thought the Buium-Faber pairing went very well. Actually, Faber is probably the only Wild righty D who can keep up with Buium. This is the pair. This is the way forward. So, here are my updated pairings without Spurgy:

Buium-Faber

Middleton-Brodin

Hunt-Bogosian

Jiricek

I'd like a look at what Brodin-Jiricek could do, we don't have any data or eye test on that yet. This is a solid defense with 4 young guys manning the defense. This day was always going to come. What stands in the way? Nostalgia. I really do think Guerin wants to give Spurgy his silver stick. 

[Pewterschmidt]

3 minutes ago, mnfaninnc said:

and giving Buium a little extra time at forward as ODC had (probably mockingly) suggested.

We’re back to video game roster planning here.  I’d rather ZBoo learn to play the nhl defense position than scramble his brain by doing a forward experiment with him.  

[mnfaninnc]

 

2 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

We’re back to video game roster planning here.  I’d rather ZBoo learn to play the nhl defense position than scramble his brain by doing a forward experiment with him.  

I would too, but, if you could go 11/7, you've got to give these guys some ice time. Why not take advantage of what you have. 

Of course, you can see my other proposal which trades out Spurgy and evens everything up, or the one that MNCountry has where we send Midsy to Buffalo.

At some point, we're going to have to thin down the guys. There's not enough ice for 8 healthy NHL defensemen.

[PiranhasOnIce]

Video game hockey rosters and trades are not realistic. 

Agreed...if Spurge or Mids can be shipped out, those 2 appear to be legitimate pieces with some value on the return for the Wild.  I'd add NOJO to that list as well for a longer-term prospect.

No GM is going to pull off a Mids for Tuch/3-way extravaganza with the Oilers.  That's just plain ridiculous. Frederick has like 1 point. 

 

[Dis-allowed display name]

Wally looked great.  MOAR WALLY!

[FredJohnson]

2 hours ago, PiranhasOnIce said:

I'd add NOJO to that list as well for a longer-term prospect.

I’d send another prospect WITH NoJo to get rid of the Cardio fiend!

[FredJohnson]

3 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

We’re back to video game roster planning here.  I’d rather ZBoo learn to play the nhl defense position than scramble his brain by doing a forward experiment with him.  

JFC! They wonder why I can’t take their comments seriously?

[FredJohnson]

 

Boo-yum?

[Imyourhuckleberry]

On 11/10/2025 at 1:20 PM, Dis-allowed display name said:

Wally looked great.  MOAR WALLY!

Wallstedt looks great against teams that have trouble scoring so far in his NHL career. He allowed 6 goals against San Jose in the start before these last two games. He's struggled against some good teams, but did shut down the Islanders, who are currently top 10 in scoring. Happy to see him doing well.

I think letting him get 2 games in a row was partially about aligning Gus against the more challenging competition, but Wallstedt has a number of very good starts this year. Look forward to seeing more.