LD Zeev Buium - University of Denver, NCAA (2024 Draft)

57special

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I watched the vast majority of Keith's NHL career.

The way Buium plays in his zone & the neutral zone certainly draws some comparison to early prime (2008-2011) Keith in terms of style. Also, so does how the Pioneers play hockey, one goes with the other. But Buium has that thing where he executes his efficient defensive moves such that he already knows where he's moving the puck before he gets it on his stick. He does it so well it looks casual.

I remember some Blackhawks fans, even in 2010, thinking Keith wasn't that good in his own zone because he didn't just pin guys to the wall on every play.

To this day there's still people who think being "great defensively" means just that...getting physical every shift.
Which is really dumb, especially in today's game where obstruction is called far more than it was in 70's - early 2000's. There are all sorts of ways to defend, but one of the key ones is to keep your body in between the man you are covering and the net. Also, going for the big punishing hits(which are now called more than ever, with new head contact rules) can take you out of position, and a worse defender, nvm the wear and tear on your body.

One of the best defenders ever was prime Ryan Suter. He'd just angle someone off into the boards, take the puck, move it.... job done. No big kaboom, just erased the offensive play. Hjalmarsson was another in recent memory. Lidstrom was similar. No drama, just killed off offensive plays.

I don't think that Buium has anything like those sorts of defensive instincts, but seems to have good feet and ok size and strength once he matures. Those attributes will help him to be at least a decent defender, which is good enough if he is above average offensively.
 
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WeThreeKings

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It’s weird to say Keith had non-elite tools when he was one of the best skaters in the league for most of his career.

Yeah, I don't get the Keith comparisons at all.

I personally think Buium is getting overrated because of his hockeydb page and he happened to pop the few times the majority of arm chair scouts got to see his events.

I have him at 14 and would take both Parekh and Yakemchuk over him, I like their offensive tool-kits better and both have similar defensive concerns as they scale up.
 
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57special

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Duncan keith was a #54 pick, people. He was not considered to be a top tier player in his draft year, nor an elite player for years after his draft. Comparing Buium to him at the same times in their relative careers is not sacrilege.

There is even a thread on this site comparing him and Ballard, and wondering who would end being the best Dman, 5 years after his draft(2002). Here is one quote from 2007, and he was by no means alone;

"Ballard, and IMO, it's not even close. Maybe it's because I've seen a lot of Ballard, but from what I have seen of Keith, he's been rather unimpressive."

Keith had 15 pts in 41 GP in the NCAA in his draft year.

Buium had 50 pts in 42 gp in his draft year. It's not crazy to speculate on whether Buium had the potential to be the next Keith, though a lot of his success depended on him being surrounded by players like Kane, Toews, Hossa, Byfuglien, Seabrooke, Hjalmarsson, Crawford, etc.
 
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Sens of Anarchy

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It’s weird to say Keith had non-elite tools when he was one of the best skaters in the league for most of his career.
I know Buium has become the darling of the draft.. but there is no way he skates as well or has the range of Keith.

Not taking away from Buium who I see as the most complete D man in this draft .. I just don't think its a good comparable.

Anyway .. comparisons seem to be popular but they are not clones.. maybe some elements are reminiscent but it becomes kind of a useless discussion.

People see or want to see different things.. Buium's skating power, speed etc are not as good as his edges and quickness. He has a great mind and sees the game very well.
 
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majormajor

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I personally think Buium is getting overrated because of his hockeydb page and he happened to pop the few times the majority of arm chair scouts got to see his events.

I have him at 14 and would take both Parekh and Yakemchuk over him, I like their offensive tool-kits better and both have similar defensive concerns as they scale up.

I am flabbergasted when Parekh and Buium's defensive games are put on the same level. They are not close.

The one thing that "popped" in the NCAA tourney was Buium's defensive game, his offense was actually more restrained (less dazzling than during the year). I'd say in the final he was nearly immaculate defensively. Shutdown quality. That was versus Smith, Perreault, Leonard, and Gauthier. He gave them nothing.

Then I watch Zayne Parekh who gets pushed around by 160 lb attackers, gets turnstiled on the cycle and in front of his net. He shows frighteningly little ability to stand his ground and gets tossed around dangerously. He can't stay healthy vs OHLers as a result.

I think Yakemchuk might sneakily have high defensive upside, but his ability to pivot to rush defense is a massive question mark, not an easy fix. That makes him a much riskier choice than Buium.
 

rt

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I am flabbergasted when Parekh and Buium's defensive games are put on the same level. They are not close.

The one thing that "popped" in the NCAA tourney was Buium's defensive game, his offense was actually more restrained (less dazzling than during the year). I'd say in the final he was nearly immaculate defensively. Shutdown quality. That was versus Smith, Perreault, Leonard, and Gauthier. He gave them nothing.

Then I watch Zayne Parekh who gets pushed around by 160 lb attackers, gets turnstiled on the cycle and in front of his net. He shows frighteningly little ability to stand his ground and gets tossed around dangerously. He can't stay healthy vs OHLers as a
I totally agree. This is exactly how I’ve see it.
 

samsagat

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Zeev Buium is the hidden gem of this draft.

Gold medal WJC U18 2023

Gold medal WJC U20 2024, being USA best defenseman (barely 18)

Won one of the hardest hockey tournament to win, the NCAA Frozen Four 2024, being Denver best defenseman at 18

Had the most points in NCAA history for a draft year defenseman

This guy is something, maybe the smartest player of this draft and he's very good all around because of it.

Execute with the precision of a surgeon, don't make a lot of mistakes and he's like Hutson, he's unpredictable and slippery.

And he can apply good body checks when needed..

The kind of defenseman you win championships with..

Even if my Habs have plenty of LD, I wouldn't mind if they chose him. We don't have any of this quality on the left side, not even close..
 
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samsagat

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Zeev Buium is the hidden gem of this draft.

Gold medal WJC U18 2023

Gold medal WJC U20 2024, being USA best defenseman (barely 18)

Won one of the hardest tournament to win, the NCAA Frozen Four 2024, being Denver best defenseman at 18

Had the most points in NCAA history for a draft year defenseman

This guy is something, maybe the smartest player of this draft and he's very good all around because of it.

Execute with the precision of a surgeon, don't make a lot of mistakes and he's like Hutson, he's unpredictable and slippery.

And he can apply good body checks when needed..

The kind of defenseman you win championships with..

Even if my Habs have plenty of LD, I wouldn't mind if they chose him. We don't have any of this quality on the left side, not even close..
I know Buium has become the darling of the draft.. but there is no way he skates as well or has the range of Keith.

Not taking away from Buium who I see as the most complete D man in this draft .. I just don't think its a good comparable.

Anyway .. comparisons seem to be popular but they are not clones.. maybe some elements are reminiscent but it becomes kind of a useless discussion.

People see or want to see different things.. Buium's skating power, speed etc are not as good as his edges and quickness. He has a great mind and sees the game very well.
It's hard to compare because hockey has changed so much.

And Buium certainly plays a modern kind of hockey. Particularly modern hockey for defensemen.

Like with Hutson, I'm not sure there's an historical NHL comparison.

I'd say Buium is similar to Hutson but with 2" and 20 pds more. Plus he's a better skater and better defensively (by a good margin).
 
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Faceboner

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His major asset is iq with no weakness really but not to strong elsewhere but his high iq allows him to dominate and his tools look like they could be easily improved and can play the right side. His skating might not be top tier like Niedermayer or Keith but it's still good if demimedov wasn't in the draft I would say hawks take him
 

Garbageyuk

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Zeev Buium is the hidden gem of this draft.

Gold medal WJC U18 2023

Gold medal WJC U20 2024, being USA best defenseman (barely 18)

Won one of the hardest tournament to win, the NCAA Frozen Four 2024, being Denver best defenseman at 18

Had the most points in NCAA history for a draft year defenseman

This guy is something, maybe the smartest player of this draft and he's very good all around because of it. And like most of s

Execute with the precision of a surgeon, don't make a lot of mistakes and he's like Hutson, he's unpredictable and slippery.

And he can apply good body checks when needed..

The kind of defenseman you win championships with..

Even if my Habs have plenty of LD, I wouldn't mind if they chose him. We don't have any of this quality on the left side, not even close..

It's hard to compare because hockey has changed so much.

And Buium certainly plays a modern kind of hockey. Particularly modern hockey for defensemen.

Like with Hutson, I'm not sure there's an historical NHL comparison.

I'd say Buium is similar to Hutson but with 2" and 20 pds more. Plus he's a better skater and better defensively (by a good margin).
Buium is actually 6’2” now.
 

Garbageyuk

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tomd

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Garbageyuk

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And? EP obviously hasn’t updated his page yet, considering all the sources I listed formerly had his height listed at 6’0” and have since been changed.
 

majormajor

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And? EP obviously hasn’t updated his page yet, considering all the sources I listed formerly had his height listed at 6’0” and have since been changed.

We had a lot of discussion about this earlier in the thread.

EP changed his height to 6'2 along with a lot of other outlets and then changed it back to 6'0 when it turned out the 6'2 thing wasn't factual.

It's frustrating but there are teams that will straight up lie and add multiple inches to players official measurements.
 

Garbageyuk

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We had a lot of discussion about this earlier in the thread.

EP changed his height to 6'2 along with a lot of other outlets and then changed it back to 6'0 when it turned out the 6'2 thing wasn't factual.

It's frustrating but there are teams that will straight up lie and add multiple inches to players official measurements.
So both USA Hockey and the Pioneers are lying? DB is obviously going off of the other two. Neither has any reason to lie, especially USA Hockey. And source on it not being factual?
 

coooldude

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This has been heavily discussed in this thread. He's very unlikely 6'2" even though he was listed everywhere as 6'2" and we're all waiting to see what happens at the combine.
 
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majormajor

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So both USA Hockey and the Pioneers are lying? DB is obviously going off of the other two. Neither has any reason to lie, especially USA Hockey. And source on it not being factual?

The first place I heard about it was EP on youtube - Russ Cohen quoted Zeev himself saying 6'2 wasn't true.
 

Garbageyuk

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This has been heavily discussed in this thread. He's very unlikely 6'2" even though he was listed everywhere as 6'2" and we're all waiting to see what happens at the combine.
If anything, someone maybe rounded up from 6’1.75” out of laziness. Or, the more simple explanation, he’s actually 6’2” or close enough that they are going to list him as that. There’s no way they are going intentionally exaggerate his height to any significant extent. What would that get them?
 

coooldude

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If anything, someone maybe rounded up from 6’1.75” out of laziness. There’s no way they are going intentionally exaggerate his height to any significant extent. What would that get them?
Happens all the time in college sports especially. Video evidence, interviews off ice, and Zeev himself all seem to confirm that he's probably 6'0.5-6'1" ... Like I said, it's unlikely he's 6'2" no matter the reason and anyway no matter what the combine will tell us the truth.
 

Garbageyuk

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Happens all the time in college sports especially. Video evidence, interviews off ice, and Zeev himself all seem to confirm that he's probably 6'0.5-6'1" ... Like I said, it's unlikely he's 6'2" no matter the reason and anyway no matter what the combine will tell us the truth.
No “video evidence” is going to allow you to spot a single inch difference, come on now. And link to where Zeev says this?
 

Erep

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If anything, someone maybe rounded up from 6’1.75” out of laziness. Or, the more simple explanation, he’s actually 6’2” or close enough that they are going to list him as that. There’s no way they are going intentionally exaggerate his height to any significant extent. What would that get them?
It gets scouts at their games. It is probably a bit of an antiquated thing, from when video wasn't quite as readily available. But if you are a scout trying to get out and see kids, and you see 2 have the same stats, and one is a couple inches taller, which one are you going to plan a trip out to see?

Even if the real number eventually is measured at the combine, it gets scouts to your amateur program. Then you can use that to advertise to players that you are a better path to the pros because you will get them in front of scouts, which then starts a cycle.

And even if it is just a slight advantage, it is a positive feedback thing, so the team will do whatever they can to make it happen.
 

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