1 week Ago By By Tyler King [email protected]
ST. LOUIS — Zeev Buium just missed out on becoming the third Denver player to win college hockey’s most prestigious individual trophy. Michigan State’s Isaac Howard was named the 2025 Hobey Baker Award winner on Friday evening at Stifel Theatre right next to Enterprise Center and the site of this year’s Frozen Four, beating out Buium and Boston College’s Ryan Leonard.
Buium was the third hat trick finalist for the Pioneers since Will Butcher last won the award in 2017. Butcher and Matt Carle remain the only two DU players to win the award. Howard ranked fifth in the country in points and led the Spartans to a No.
1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Even without the Hobey Baker, Buium’s two-year Pios career isn’t without trophies. He was named NCHC Player of the Year last month after winning NCHC rookie of the year last season.
On Friday, he earned his second straight West first team All-American honor. Teammate Jack Devine joined him on the West All-America first team. Buium was named most outstanding player at DU’s Manchester Regional win earlier this season and is a two-time NCHC offensive defenseman of the year and two-time first team all-NCHC honoree.
He was also a member of last year’s Frozen Four all-tournament team. DU’s double-overtime loss to Western Michigan on Thursday at the Frozen Four will be it for Buium as he said Friday he plans on making the jump to the next step on signing with the Minnesota Wild, who drafted him No. 12 overall in last year's NHL draft, this week.
Minnesota has three games left in the regular season, including Friday at Calgary and Saturday at Vancouver. There’s a chance Buium will make his NHL debut on Tuesday in front of his new home crowd against Anaheim. He’ll go down as one of the best players in recent memory and an all-timer for Pios fans.
He regularly dazzled the crowd with his smooth skating and playmaking abilities. This season, the California native ranks 11th among all skaters in the country in points with 48, which is tops among defensemen. His 35 assists are second nationally (most by a defenseman) and behind only teammate Jack Devine.
His 13 goals are third among defenders. Buium has totaled a staggering 98 points (24 goals and 74 assists) across his two seasons in the Mile High City, despite entering his freshman season at just 17 years old. That’s the most points in a college career by an under-20 defenseman in the last 45 years.
He also won a pair of gold medals with the United State at the World Junior Championships, both times coached by David Carle, during his time with the Pios. If Thursday’s game was indeed Buium’s goodbye to DU, he went out with everything he had, recording a staggering 51 minutes and 41 seconds of ice time, about 64% of the action..
