Team: Sioux City Musketeers – USHL
Date of Birth: March 26, 2003 – San Diego, CA, USA
Height: 191cm / 6’3″
Weight: 97kgs / 214 lbs
Position: Defence
Shoots: Left
Player Introduction
A former Los Angeles Junior King, Buium made the switch from the west coast to Minnesota in his 14U AAA to join the talent machine that is Shattuck St. Mary’s. His unique and diverse blend of size and skill was very apparent and he became somewhat a man amongst boys for the best part of his three-and-a-half years in Minnesota. Buium stepped straight out of prep-school after 17 games and into the Sioux line-up with relative ease this season.
Transition Ability
Perhaps his best offering, Buium is very prominent in being a reliable yet creative facilitator out of his own end. Either by pass or by foot, Buium displays a great skill in finding ways to feed transition for his team. His vision is best utilised when he has the game in front of him, recognising where the space is and inevitably will be. This is evident as it is the base of his strength in exiting the zone.
Buium has a good understanding of his forwards skating patterns and seems to be able to feed passes both into advantageous spaces and onto the tape in consistent volumes. He can slice a defence open down the centre ice seam with hard and accurate stretch passes, but he’s also shown adeptness to make creative bank passes and subtle touch passes through the neutral zone.
By foot, his exits are very noticeable due to his propensity to command the centre-ice lane in transition. Buium pushes his big frame downhill in a very calm and calculated manner. This is due to his vision mostly but also attributed to his ability to navigate his way through traffic.
Whilst Buium may not boast elite north/south speed, he does have decent top-end speed when he eventually builds up to it. His first few strides aren’t by any means explosive, but in a way it doesn’t hamper his transition efforts. If anything, it allows for him to approach the neutral zone with more poise and a plan on where his point of entry will be. That way when a few strides in, like an old Clydesdale, he’s starting to find his rhythm and speed when it matters most. His stride is rather long and it aids in him being deceptively quicker than the eye suggests.
Positioning and Defence
Positionally in defence, Buium is very responsible. For someone that isn’t fast or gifted with high-end lateral mobility, it’s imperative for current and future successes.
Defending the rush he simply shines. He has very good gap control and finds himself in good initial positions to play to his strengths. Buium doesn’t close gaps aggressively, rather he uses his good back-skating and length to corral would-be entries and uses the boards to seal off the play.
He’s also a constant in the shooting lanes and shows good awareness as when to activate higher in the defensive zone in order to disrupt play. Buium also does a really good job of finding the puck carrier below the goal-line and hunts for the puck using his size to an advantage; I love his engine and dogged ways in the defensive zone. There is a speed and style in which he defends that for me, I query but also seem intrigued by. Buium seems to defend his zone better when the opposing team plays quicker. Whether it be cycling the puck or entering the zone with pace, Buium just seems more comfortable and at ease when the heat is on.
He likes to play with pace and is always seeking to generate transition at all costs, being active and on his edges in the defensive zone acts as a precursor to his transition game. He looks to find contact and source/hunt pucks more often when moving at a good rate of knots; he doesn’t appear as uncomfortable, opposed to when he’s flat footed. This means Buium will often fabricate angles and skating lines to support his strengths and tendencies when seeking to engage defensively, and to be honest, I don’t mind it.
It’s not always going to work at all levels, his size let’s him get away with some things that against better skaters, just won’t fly. He can be prone to getting slipped by along the end-boards and half-walls as he just doesn’t have the turn radius and initial burst to cover any errors is his angles and/or timing. He also can be prone to allowing fast forecheckers to disrupt him and force turnovers.
However, when his aggressiveness and pursuit pays off, the results can be great.
I’m eager to see what his results will look like in these situations once he gets some more jazz into his game by way of foot speed and physicality. By improving on those 50/50 plays and reducing those risks that aren’t as accentuated now, you’re talking about a very stern defenseman who can close plays quickly and more often than not, have potential to start the rush just as quick.
Offensive Instincts
On the offensive side of the puck, Buium does a lot of nice things positionally. If not the on-puck facilitator in transition, he does a good job of finding space, making himself a viable secondary option in attack by supporting the rush. When in the cycle he remains fluid and works the blue-line and walls well, using his smarts continually to find pockets where he can seek to be involved in the play. Displays terrific acumen in his ability to pinch into the offensive zone with effect and in holding his line.
For a player of his size, I’m impressed with his hands and general agility. As mentioned his skating is continually progressing, but his hands in conjunction with his spatial awareness make for an elusive package. Buium has proven he can handle well in-tight to avoid pressure to aid in breaking down defensive layers and to find ways to get out of trouble.
Buium displays a go-to move at the blueline, where he cuts off the right wall and is able to then navigate through bodies and find a clear shooting lane.
When down-low, he can showcase his creativity with deft passes into dangerous areas that require finesse. His backhand to forehand transitions are also clean, a huge bonus for a player of his size who can effectively rush into dangerous areas.
Hands and Technical Aspects
His passes and the evident touch on them are a fine marriage between his vision and hands. Having vision to make such passes are one thing, but you’re also required to have the hand-eye and control to execute. Buium is a beneficiary of fast yet soft hands and good extension fundamentals when passing.
In terms of his shot, I’ve got mixed feelings. I see a player who is much more dangerous at this stage of his career from the hashes and in. His hands seem to be more acclimated to softer touches and finesse rather than brute power. His slapshot and snapshot from distance paint that picture, as they vary in both power and accuracy. He also has inconsistencies in his stance and balance when in a shooting motion.
Here is a video and photo breakdown of a shooting play lacking some patience.
There are occasions such as above where his inconsistency in his skating confidence hampers his quality of shot. Even when in adequate spaces, where he can advance the puck to improve angles and quality, he takes a quick shot of an automatic nature.
But when he does move his feet:
When compared to his finish from closer and even more difficult locations, I can’t help but feel years of being ahead of his peers physically has seen him not really need to develop a truly powerful shot as he’s had such a natural advantage; always getting what he wants on the ice by way of superior size and skill. The strength is there with Buium, it’s just a matter of refining his shot and finding confidence in his feet in order to make more plays. That should see a more consistent mindset on the puck and prominent yield.
Agility
He is able to slip through checks along the boards and avoid contact through the middle by letting his hands and hips lead him away from contact. His feet however tend to follow his hands and upper body movements, a common occurrence in many facets of Buium’s play. It works at this level, but as he progresses through college and beyond, he’s going to need to augment his overall agility package.
Where The Improvements Will Come
I’ve touched on skating a lot, Buium isn’t in any way bad, he just needs more coaching and time to find consistency and skate a higher level more often. His potential in the skating department is what excites me so much about him. He’s a naturally gifted athlete who has shown glimpses of high-end skating ability. I KNOW it’s there for him, it’s just a matter of time before he unlocks his full skating potential.
The biggest thing with Buium to improve on is his quad flexion and knee bend. He is still upright in his stance and at times looks closer to a 45 degree bend rather than achieving an optimal 90 degree bend. This is a result of what is mentioned above, less than ideal quad flexion. By not gaining adequate access to the most important muscle group to generate power, it prevents optimal force to move a skater’s mass; and in this case Buium has a fair chunk of it, so it can appear visually over accentuated.
Once Buium gets into a lower and less natural stance accessing his quads and glutes more, there will be more balance throughout his core, legs and feet. Without proper lower body flexion, you get to a point when you have to rely on distributing weight onto your toe or edge to stay balanced, creating poor posture and resulting in a loss in power.
Context applies here too, at 6’3″ and nearly 215 pounds Buium is rather advanced in his skating relative to many peers of his size. He’s never going to be Samuel Girard, and that’s okay.
Conclusion
Buium is going to take a little time to allow for his kinks to get ironed out, but I believe his combination of hands, 200 feet hockey sense and eventually his skating will see him be a solid contributor at NHL level. Patience will be the key. If I’m a general manager picking with a mid-second to mid-third round pick, the combination of size, vision and just pure untapped potential has to be appealing.
My February Ranking: 65th
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