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May 30, 2024  DU defenseman Zeev Buium at Magness Arena on
Thursday morning. When the 2023-24 college hockey season opened, Denver Pioneers freshman defenseman
Zeev Buium still was only 17. Only one NCAA player -- Boston University's Macklin Celebrini -- was younger, and that was only
by a day. Looking ahead to when Buium would be NHL-draft eligible in 2024, he already was considered a big-time prospect. But
his progress during his freshman season at DU was startling. He got significant ice time for the Pioneers' second NCAA championship
team in three seasons and was the youngest player on the USA's gold-medal World Junior Championships team at midseason --
a team that was coached by DU's David Carle. "It's been an unbelievable year," Buium said Thursday at Magness Arena. "I
couldn't have written it any better. It was such a great year, such a unique year and something I'll never forget. I look
back a little bit now because everything's kind of calmed down. I can't quite wrap my hands about it quite yet. Hopefully
when I'm 30 or 40, I can look back and finally understand how special it was." Now Buium seems destined to go among the
top 10 overall in the June 28-29 NHL draft. Given the way the draft-and-watch NHL system generally works, and how its talent judgment
relies on projection, Buium almost certainly will play at least one more season for the Pioneers before signing with the NHL
organization that drafts him in four weeks. Keep in mind even Cale Makar, who played Junior A hockey before going No. 4 overall
to the Avalanche in the 2017 draft, played two seasons at the University of Massachusetts after the Avalanche took him and
that relative patience generally is deemed to have been beneficial to his development. The NHL's Central Scouting Bureau
has Buium rated as the top American-born player in this draft class and as the No. 4 North American skater.
So
how high could he go in the draft? "For me it doesn't really matter where," Buium said. "I want to go to
a team that really wants me for me, who I am and who I am as a player. It doesn't really matter what number that is for me.
Just kind of the team that wants me the most and sees me for what I am. . . Obviously, you see things, you hear things through
Instagram. You have to keep your mind on the present. For me, it's being where my feet are, and right now it's getting bigger
and stronger in the gym." Next up is the June 2-8 NHL Draft Combine in Buffalo. It's doubtful anything could
happen there to significantly affect Buium's draft stock. But Carle, considered a major prospect at the time, had to
quit the game and go into coaching as a sudent-assistant at DU after a heart issue was discovered at the Combine in his draft
year. All of that figures into how one of the most successful coaches in the college game -- any college game -- is only 34.
"He's
told us about it a little bit," Buium said. "He doesn't really talk about it much. That's what makes him such a
great person. That was such a hard experience. Imagine what that was like. To see what he's doing now, how he bounced back
from such a young age shows what kind of person he is." Three weeks after the Combine, Buium will
head from Buffalo to Las Vegas for the draft itself. It will be the final time the NHL will treat its draft as a league
convention, with team personnel actually going to the draft site and making the picks there, calling their choices onstage
to pull on the team's jersey and pose for pictures. Next year, the NHL draft will more closely resemble the NFL, NBA, and
MLB drafts, with teams relaying their picks along to the central draft site. "I think it's super-special, with
our group being the last group to be able to do that, to be the traditional NHL draft," Buium said. "The atmosphere
in Vegas ovbiously is going to be very unique. We're all super-excited. I can't wait to get there." Even Zeev talks as
if signing with an NHL team before next season is unlikely. So Pioneers fans can assume Buium almost certainly will be back
for at least his sophomore season. "That
wouldn't hurt me at all," he said. "I'm a young kid. I love this place a lot, too. We obviously want to defend our
title as well. That's a challenge I want to pack and go for." Carle acknowledges Buium has been even better than expected. "His play has shown
that he is deeserving of being drafted as high as he will be," Carle said."I don't think there's a player in the
draft that impacts the game shift-to-shift like he does on the ice, at both ends of the rink, playing the minutes that he
does in big moments. Whatever team ends up drafting him is getting a great person first and an excellent hockey player.""
Zeev was listed at 6-2 and 180 last season. I asked him if he is physically ready for the
NHL. "Yes
and no," he said. "The way I play, I use my hockey IQ to use every strength of my game. I might not be the biggest
and strongest guy, but I've never been. I don't think I'm not physically ready. but with that, another year of college, another
year of development will just get me even more ready." Buium's older brother, Shai, was with the Pioneers
for three seasons before signing with the Detroit Red Wings shortly after the Pioneers arrived back from the Frozen Four.
So they got to celebrate one championship together. The brothers are from San Diego, but that's not as unlikely as it might
seem. Southern California is one of the nation's youth hockey hotbeds and the brothers drew considerable attention in those
programs. Besides, Zeev played in the National Team Development Program in Michigan before attending the renowned Shattuck-St.
Mary's Academy in Faribault, Minnesota, which has many NHL standouts among its alumni. (Including Sidney Crosby and Nathan
MacKinnon.) DU's Brother Act has been broken up, but for one
season it was a spectacular success. The Red Wings took Shai in the second round of the 2021 draft. The Pioneers' other
top defenseman, Sean Behrens, also was a second-round pick in 2021, to the Avalanche. He signed with Colorado in April and
finished up the season with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL.
Whatever team drafts Zeev Buium likely will make it clear he needs to get bigger and stronger. Although it's theoretically
possible Zeev could immediately sign an NHL contract, even he talks about next season as if his return to DU for a second
season is a given. Zeev was among the minority of players who arrived early enough on campus to play one season before reaching
the NHL's draft age. (Tied to birth dates, NHL players generally -- not always -- are 18 when they're draft eligibile.) "For me, going
to college early was a huge advantage," Zeev said. "Through everything. Through hockey, you get to experience the
game in a different way, at a higher level and mature your game. Mature as a person, living in a dorm, being away from home.
I learned a lot from the older guys here." If, as expected, Zeev stays, a mixed core of young holdovers will be with him in pursuit
of the Pioneers' third NCAA title in four seasons. "Oh, we can be unbelievable," Zeev said. "Obviously Coach Carle and
the rest of the coaching staff is unbelievable. They do a great job for us. We have the best coaching staff in college hockey.
We have 11 freshmen coming back from the national champions. That's a lot of guys, so for me it's just implementing the younger
guys coming in and becoming a winning team again. I think that's something we can do, for sure." 
Carle Thursday also provided updates about the state of the Pioneers' program in the wake of their second NCAA title in three years. Although DU lost a handful of drafted underclassmen players who signed NHL deals --
including Behrens, Shai Buium, Massimo Rizzo and Tristan Broz -- Carle isn't sweating it, either. None of those underclassmen
signings were unexpected. Carle already was talking about the inevitability of major personnel losses the day after the Frozen
Four championship game. Plus, standout forward Jack Devine's return for his senior season -- he was a late-round Florida choice
in 2021 -- is a positive for DU. Bottom line: Carle is adept at taking advantage of the NHL's respect and interest in the program in recruiting. "We communicate quite a bit with the kids, NHL teams, agents throughout the season,"
Carle said. "As the year progressed, we were having good, productive discussions to understand where guys were at and
what they were leaning toward. Nobody likes being surprised in anything in life. I don't think there were any surprises on
our end. We're really happy for Massimo, and Shai, and Tristan, the guys who signed early and I'm looking forward to cheering
them on at the next stage." Carle also addressed the chatter that he had interviewed for the New Jersey Devils' coaching job. He still is only 34, which would make him the youngest NHL
coach ... by far. "I
did talk to a team, probably three to four weeks ago and that's the only team I feel I interviewed with," Carle said.
"It was not the team that the report
was out about ... The team I did interview with, we went through a good process. I ultimately bowed out. Here, we have all
the resources to continue to be successful. I'm not in a rush to leave here. It's unfortunate that a report got out that I
interviewed at another place. I didn't see it that way. It was another
conversation about a number of topics. I talk to GMs regularly about players on our team. Not every conversation is an interview.
Did we talk about my plans and my future? Yeah, we did a little bit, but I don't think it was an interview, nor shuld it be
taken that way."
Carle pointed
out that in NCAA hockey, refusing to communicate with NHL personnel is, well, stupid. "It's my job to ge plugged in and have conversations with people
at higher levels," he said. "Is it a dream? Maybe someday, but today I can't say that. If it was a life-changing
opportunity, a team that I think can win right away, a GM that I would have a lot of respect for ... I think you see in today's
market that there's been 19 new head coaches in two years. I think it's not a great environment for coaches right now." Zeev Buium and David Carle aren't going anywhere. At least not yet. Terry Frei's web site     
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