Zeev Buium : In-Depth Scouting Report

Zeev Buium is a left-handed defender who won the hearts of hockey observers during the season. Playing for the University of Denver, we notably saw him carve out an important role with the USA at the WJC.

When you watch him play, it’s not very surprising that he is ranked so high in public lists. Zeev Buium is the most elusive skater in the entire draft. He has excellent agility on his skates which allows him to turn on himself at any given time. He can make changes of direction one after the other until his coverer gives him an opening. This also allows him to buy a considerable amount of time for an option to become available or for a teammate to come to support him.

His confidence in his abilities allows him to take advantage of his agility as he excels at luring players onto him at the blue line and then performing a succession of shoulder movements to leave them in the dust. There is definitely a pattern in his play selections, which is to escape to the right, bringing the puck to his backhand. Although it is true that constantly opting for the same selections of play can be considered a crutch, I believe that this is the best solution that Buium has since his explosion on his skate is not that great (to go his backhand allows him to extend his reach with the puck), but more importantly, he makes excellent use of his free arm to push his opponent away!

Having a rather average size, Buium finds a way to elevate his puck protection with this judicious use of his free arm.

Buium is a prioritized option for his team to carry the puck. He finds success in this facet by very quickly identifying the roads that close in front of him and what other avenues he can take. His effectiveness is also increased by the dekes he makes in front of opponents with his head and shoulders. He sells them false routes and this is how he manages to dangle players on the ice.

Buium is a player who has quite a bit of ‘Bite’. Without necessarily giving big body checks, he battles firmly along the boards and if he can give an opponent a hard time, he will do so.

It’s from here that I have to start talking about the less stellar aspects of his game. Although I appreciate his desire to compete, Buium has a fairly average physique for a defenseman (6’0, 183 lbs) and there is a noticeable lack of physical strength when attempting to push his opponents. They brush him off pretty easily and they manage to complete their play without too much trouble.

This considerably limits his defensive effectiveness and even in possession of the puck, Buium tends to hold onto it too long and he often finds himself in a situation where he has to protect it with his physique, and what nature has provided him is not sufficient. What worries me a little is that his confidence in his abilities in these situations is greater than it should be.

To come back to his skating, I think you have to be careful when analyzing his skating. Yes, his agility on his skates is remarkable and very good things come from it but that is not a good barometer to adequately judge his speed as such. Evaluating a player in movement against static players is rather misleading. When I watch Buium skate in a straight line, I don’t find his speed to be above average.

And when he is called upon to defend rush attacks, it is still quite common to see him get beaten from the outside. His stick is not the best in his situations, already he is not helped by the longest reach.

To come back to his puck possession plays in the offensive zone, I find that the ‘Flashy’ and exciting side that they offer has misled a lot of people as to his real offensive effectiveness and what his potential is. In many of these sequences, Buium seems to have no pre-established idea in mind. There’s a lack of forethought. He finds himself constantly improvising until he runs out of space: he will either lose a battle along the boards or he will have to take a non-threatening shot, from afar, while turning around. These plays are not made with the intention of opening a passing-lane, but more to buy time. Which leads me to believe that his offensive potential is more limited than one might believe at first.

These kinds of plays happened more frequently as the season progressed, which is curious because it also coincides with his rise in the rankings. I believe that the multiplication of these errors is due to too much confidence in his own skills.

In certain sequences, we had the right to wonder if he did not suffer from a lack of vision. Which is not the case. He just needs to learn to play more simply.

His puck distribution game is good, nothing more. I place more value on brief possessions when it comes time to circulate the puck, rather than seeing a player endlessly circling in the offensive zone. Often, when paying attention to the opposing defensive structure, it is much more likely that an opening will be created with a collective passing game than with prolonged puck possession by a single player.

In the first half of the season, I had a big problem with the low volume of plays generated by Buium’s efficient puck circulation. This is now better. In addition, on a technical level, he is good at deceiving opposing forwards as he keeps his gaze on the goalkeeper before making a cross-ice pass. The projection of these games translates well; however, I would like to see more variety in his play selections while he always opts for the same target (player to his right).

As a shooter, Buium doesn’t pose much of a threat. His shot is rather average; however he does a good job of getting close enough (with or without the puck) before taking the shot. The biggest limitation once again comes from a volume that is simply too low. Buium does not send enough pucks to the net. In the NHL, many defensemen manage to amass a lot of points simply by bringing pucks to the net, and Buium doesn’t take enough shots, and I would add that he is not the best at finding shooting-lanes from the blue line.

Historically, Buium has never been a big points producer and this season the University of Denver offense was firing on all cylinders. This leads me to be a little wary of his production which could well be inflated. On the other hand, to be fair, I must point out that Buium finished 3rd in points per game for his team (49 pts in 40 games) and that remains impressive.

If there’s a recurring theme in my evaluation of defensemen over the past few seasons, it’s that they don’t need to be big point producers to get ranked highly on my list. This could excuse Buium from many wrongs, on the other hand, I find his defensive play quite average.

Largely due to his lack of physical strength and the fact that he often gets beat from the outside, as mentioned earlier. But also because his game in a one-on-one situation is not good enough for me.

Some of his readings are deficient, we have an example here.

A Czech forward sends the puck behind the net to get rid of the coverer. The latter sets off to chase the player for whom he is responsible. Buium is responsible for covering the player moving towards the front of the net.

Seeing that his defense partner will not get to the puck first, Buium decides to go behind the net to try to pokecheck the Czech player, freeing another opponent completely alone in the slot. It resulted in a goal against.

I have to say that brain cramps like this aren’t necessarily a common thing for Buium, but the limitations in his defensive game are very real.

From what I’ve seen of Buium, my projection is more of a 2nd pair defender. I think his defensive play is average and the offense is perhaps a little overrated. On the other hand, if there is a player on whom I am afraid of being wrong, it is him. It’s still very impressive what he achieved in the NCAA, and not being a very big fan of Sam Dickinson and Artyom Levshunov, I could be convinced without much resistance to rank him ahead of these two defenders. What makes me dread putting him at that rank is that he plays with a very high level of confidence on the ice, and if there is one thing that can allow a player to reach a higher level, it’s confidence.

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