Zeev Buium Readying for Minnesota Wild Playoff Debut?

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Minnesota Wild defenseman Zeev Buium with the Denver Pioneers
Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Wild will begin their 2025 playoffs against the Vegas Golden Knights, after pulling out a somewhat miracle victory against the Anaheim Ducks earlier this week that locked in the No. 1 wildcard spot in the Western Conference.

This is the matchup the Wild were hoping for. Yes, the main objective was to get into the tournament, something that was not guaranteed until they got to overtime on Tuesday night. But, if at all possible, avoiding the best team in the NHL in round one — the 116 point Winnipeg Jets — was the ideal outcome.

Unfortunately, because their regular season finale had so much on the line, we did not get a chance to see the No. 2 prospect in all of hockey, Zeev Buium, make his NHL Debut vs Anaheim. Given he just joined the team hours earlier, the MN Wild did not feel comfortable throwing him onto the ice with so much on the line.

Zeev Buium is tracking toward NHL debut… in the playoffs?

At the time, however, head coach John Hynes did hint at the possibility he will be active for their first round playoff matchup against Vegas. On Thursday, the Wild sure looked like a team that’s ready to throw their 19-year-old rookie defenseman to the professional wolves.

In fact, Buium has been practicing with the Wild’s top power play unit the past couple days, something that Michael Russo (The Athletic) feels is a very real indicator of whether or not he’ll be in a Minnesota Wild uniform and on the ice for game one, on Sunday night vs the Golden Knights.

As a Sophomore at the University of Denver this season, Zeev Buium totalled 13 goals and 35 assists (48 points). In his two-year college career, Buium scored 24 goals and assisted on 74 more (98 points). He was far and away Denver’s best player.

In their Frozen Four loss to Western Michigan, Zeev played 51 minutes of the double-OT thriller. He’s an offensive-minded defenseman, who has as much skill as anyone at his position, though he can tend to get too aggressive and turn pucks over in precarious areas of the ice.

Minnesota Wild teammates excited to add Buium to lineup

On paper, though, Zeev is exactly what the Minnesota Wild power play has been missing all season long. More offensive firepower from the blue line. At the least, the Wild seem pretty confident he can provide that for them, even in the playoffs.

What do his new teammates think? It sounds like they want him to play too. At the end of the day, this is the NHL and the NHL is about winning hockey games. If Zeev Buium can help them do that, they don’t care what his age is.

“I’m excited for him … if [he does play]. He’s such a good kid. I’ve gotten to know [Buium] for the past three days. And, yeah, I’m just excited. We all want this guy in the lineup. We know it’s big, but if there’s one guy he can look to is Brock Faber about how to come in. I know Brock had a couple games in before playoffs, but playoffs are playoffs, and it doesn’t matter. It’s your first game to get thrown in there.

I think just the way Zeev holds himself, carries himself, I think he’s going to be just fine going into Game One against Vegas, and he’s got the support of us as teammates, his new teammates now. And we want him to flourish. If he can be the offensive guy that we saw in college and can help us get some other looks and plays, that’s all we (want). We just gotta make sure that we’re giving him a confidence booster there that we want him to do those things and back him up.”

Marcus Foligno (quote via Michael Russo on X – @RussoHockey)

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