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18 hours ago
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When the Vancouver Canucks look back years from now on the trade that sent Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, their biggest takeaway from the deal will likely depend on Zeev Buium.
The young defenseman was more or less the Hughes replacement that the Canucks got back. How he develops pretty much grades the trade by itself.
And so far, Buium has done nothing to make it feel like he won't turn into a great player.
Still just 20, the 6-foot-tall left-shot defenseman has played in 35 games with the Canucks and averaged 20 minutes of ice time per contest while scoring two goals with seven assists.
In a tough team situation like the Canucks are currently, it's not expected that Buium would put up massive numbers. But he looks equipped to continue getting better.
And at some point, a huge payday might be coming.
Vancouver reporter Rick Dhaliwal spoke in a new report and compared Buium to Luke Hughes and Jackson LaCombe, who both earn about $9 million per year on their current contracts.
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If Buium were to sign a max-length contract with Vancouver for eight years, then you're looking at something like $72 million over the length of the contract for Buium to be paid like those guys.
Given that contracts often trend up, Buium could end up costing even more than that if he continues to look comfortable enough with the Canucks.
Clearly, they thought highly enough of his future to go get him from Minnesota for Hughes.
And soon enough, that could reward Buium with a fantastic payday.
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