The Minnesota Wild traded up from #13 to #12 overall to take rising sophomore D Zeev Buium, incoming freshmen F Jake Fisher and D Tory Pitner were selected to stay local by the Colorado Avalanche, and for the third time in the last four years and fifth time overall, Denver Hockey had at least five players selected in the NHL Draft. It was yet another banner draft for the Pioneers as the NHL recognized David Carle’s recruiting and coaching prowess once again. With this weekend’s five selections and the transfers of Samu Salminen (NJD, R3 ’21) and Eric Pohlkamp (SJS, R5 ’23), DU Hockey will boast 14 drafted players on its 2024-25 roster.
The story of the entire weekend, though, was Buium inexplicably falling from a potentially top-five pick all the way out of the top ten to #12. Buium, you may recall, was featured as one of the four top prospects promoted by the NHL in the lead-up to this weekend’s draft. Instead, he was the sixth defenseman taken on Friday night behind the likes of Artyom Levshunov (#2 – CHI), Carter Yakemchuk (#7 – OTT), Zayne Parekh (#9 – CGY), Anton Silayev (#10 – NJD), and Sam Dickinson (#11 – SJS). If there are six defensemen in this draft better than Buium, this will be the deepest drafted crop of defensemen in NHL history. More likely, though, five or six teams whiffed on their first selections and, in head coach David Carle’s own words, “I think the Wild got an absolute steal at 12. I think five years from now you’ll see that proves out even more in all the re-drafts that everybody likes to do.”
As head-scratching as Buium’s fall to #12 was (the prevailing sentiment is his size worked against him which is becoming more and more of a puzzling ‘reason’ as the NHL gets smaller and faster but I digress…), he did become the Pioneers fifth 1st round pick of all time, joining the likes of Craig Redmond (#6 – LAK, 1984), Joe Colborne (#16 – BOS, 2008), Beau Bennett (#20 – PIT, 2010), and Henrik Borgström (#23 – FLA, 2016).
After Buium’s selection on Friday night, though, four more Pioneers – all incoming freshmen – heard their names called on Saturday. Fisher went to the Avs in the fourth round at #121 overall and F Hagen Burrows was then the second Pioneer taken in the fourth round when the Tampa Bay Lightning used the #128 overall pick on him. No Pioneers were taken in the fifth round but Pitner heard his name called and joined his roommate Fisher as an Avs prospect at #185 overall in the sixth round and F James Reeder rounded out the Pioneers’ weekend in Las Vegas when he was taken at #198 in the 7th round by the Los Angeles Kings, joining fellow Kings prospect and rising DU junior Jared Wright.
Denver’s 75th season and the quest to defend the program’s 10th national title begins in a little over three months when the Pioneers travel to Anchorage to take on the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on October 5th & 6th.
Top photo of Buium at the 2024 NHL Draft courtesy of Denver Athletics
We have 3 goalies, 8 defensemen, 14 forwards. We are short one now that Mattie’s is signing with Utah. Who will we get.
Hagen Burrows was added to the incoming class because of Matikka’s departure. If not for Matikka leaving, Burrows would have arrived next Fall and not have been on this year’s team. The roster as it stands now is complete.
I have a lot of thoughts about why Buium fell from a top 5 pick to 12.
First, NHL GM’s are moving back toward drafting big defensemen as a general rule. Big players usually get injured less than smaller ones. which is is coupled with long, intense playoff hockey today becoming wars of attrition. No GMs are getting fired for drafting size, but they do get fired when smaller guys don’t pan out. This factor was mentioned by San Jose, among others who took larger D-men.
Second, all things being equal on talent, the Canadian NHL teams (and Canadian GMs) will often select the Canadian kid (often Major Junior) over an American college kid. This is due to a mix of CHL familiarity, patriotism and comfort level. This also can work in reverse with an American or former college player GM taking the American first. This factor could have played a role in teams like Ottawa and Calgary both passing on Buium.
Third, there are also team-specific reasons why players get passed over. NHL Teams have their own lists of drafted players that are not public or many not agree with the more public predictions. For example, Montreal would likely have taken Buium at the 5th pick had forward Ivan Demidov not been available at that slot. Montreal believed it needed another scorer more than another puck-moving D-man.
Finally, while I have no direct proof of this, but I worry that anti-semitism may also be a hidden factor. Certainly, I’ve read a number of recent anti-semitic online fan community comments about Zeev’s background, something that is quite sickening to me. Also, anti-semitic beliefs are at its highest recorded level right now in the USA since the ADL started measuring anti-semitism in 1964. In the ADL anti-Semitism survey of Feb of 2024, 24% of Americans endorse six or more anti-Jewish tropes, a record high. In addition to individual attitudes, more than 42% of Americans either have friends/family who are said to dislike Jews. It would be naive to think that the hockey community is immune from anti-semitism.
I believe that Zeev will be happier in Minnesota than with many of those other teams and/or cities.
To bad the Avs didn’t have an earlier spot in the draft…I would have loved to watch him continue his post college career right here in Denver. He’s a great kid and a special talent.
So confirmed that Zeev will be back for another year? Haven’t heard anything either way, so just wanted to make sure.
Wild GM Bill Guerin said outright that “the last thing I want to do is rush a player”. Based on that I’m 95% sure Zeev will be back in Denver this year. I’ve heard Zeev say that he believes he is NHL-ready, and while that my well be true from a hockey skills perspective, a year of getting bigger (Play at 195 lbs. vs the 186 he is now), stronger and more maturity would really help him walk into the NHL at 19 next April (after DU’s season is over), vs. signing now and struggling to contain the larger, faster NHL forwards as an 18 year old d-man. Minnesota is not a great team right now and even for an advanced talent like Zeev, defensemen still generally take a year or two longer than forwards to develop to an NHL level.