Canucks Lock Up Zeev Buium on Eight-Year Extension

The Canucks signed defenceman Zeev Buium to an eight-year, $75.04 million contract extension on Friday, September 4, 2026. The deal carries a $9.38 million average annual value and begins in 2027-28.

Buium is 20. He arrived in Vancouver last season in the blockbuster that sent Quinn Hughes to Minnesota, and he put up three goals and nine assists in 45 games with the Canucks after the deal. The Wild had drafted him 12th overall in 2024.

Eight years was the maximum term a team could give its own player under the CBA when Buium signed. That limit falls to seven years on September 16, 2026. Vancouver used the full term on a defenceman with 76 career regular-season NHL appearances, split between Minnesota and Vancouver.

"Zeev has settled in nicely with our organization since his trade to Vancouver last season, and we are extremely happy to see him make this long-term commitment to the Canucks," general manager Ryan Johnson said in a statement. "He is a key member of our young core and a player we will build around moving forward."

Johnson added that Buium has "a lot of upside" and pointed to "the system and environment we are creating inside our locker room."

That is the bet: that the player who came back in the Hughes trade becomes the piece the next decade of Canucks hockey is built on.