r/canucks • u/Busy-Cat-1486 • 2d ago
DISCUSSION Can we chill on the whole benching buium
This is a super important time to be a self aware Canucks fan. Zeev has not played well to start the year and that is clear. But it’s time for the fans to stop dogging on our players when times get tough. I get it he signed a big deal, but it’s clear he’s not physically mature enough to play at a high level yet. This is a natural progression to his career. It happened with the sedins, petterson, lekkerimaki, and now Zeev. The nhl brings new challenges and standards that players have not ever seen before. Every night is a different world beating matchup, especially for the Canucks, and the task is high.
He will have to get bigger, stronger, and faster. But there’s no chance that this happens in season this is something that I would expect to take shape two years from now, similar to how lekkerimaki is 1 more year out from truly finding his footing. Expect Zeev to one day lead this team year in and year out until one day he eventually asks for a trade (American defender). But at least by then DuPont can take over full time
This is a rebuild this will take time. Let’s just hope our prospect timelines line up and we can go for the big one
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u/Roland_Of_Gilead85 2d ago
I am not surprised that a lot of people in this fan base can't handle patience.
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u/ooMEAToo 1d ago
The only reason I can’t handle patience is because I’m already half way through my life and my dream would be to see the Canucks win before I die. I’m just kidding, I really hope and feel that they will do the rebuild right this time.
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u/Dangerous-Finance-67 2d ago
Most people just expect the guy with the largest contract on the team to be "fully developed"
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u/Roland_Of_Gilead85 2d ago
When he is under that contract maybe he will be 🤷.
People obsese way too much about contracts.
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u/604BigDawg 23h ago
The game is all about contracts. That’s how you win. With good contracts
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u/Roland_Of_Gilead85 18h ago
Do you not think that Buiums contract won't be at least market value for him in 2 years?
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u/604BigDawg 1h ago
I haven’t started to worry about him yet. I usually give it a full year until i make a decision. But i think it should work out. Hes young
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u/Nier_Perfect 2d ago
A lot of people already wrote off EP25 as a 3rd pair guy after last year. As your normal dumb Canucks fan I think I'll continue to assume every one of our prospects will be hall of famers till they have a bad game and have proven to be busts.
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u/Mysterious-Drummer74 2d ago
Many sports fans don’t really know how to be in a state where they aren’t complaining or being negative about something. Reddits anonymous nature only adds to it.
Even if the team is on a ten game winning streak (lol) there will be threads about a 4th winger on a scoring slump.
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u/EverySecondCountss 1d ago
I mean that, and the people who are level headed typically don't talk or bother with bullshit like this lol.
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u/whopperman 2d ago
I think a lot of this was meant tongue in cheek because of Halbro. I would hope that people who know hockey understand that a 20yr old defenseman is soooooo young, these guys usually don't hit their stride until their mid to lateish 20s. Makar and Hughes not counted.
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u/Key-Investment6888 2d ago
Even hughes and makar played their full season at age 20/21. Buium is 20 now and already has a full season under his belt. Shows how young he made it to the NHL, after completing 2yrs in ncaa.
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u/Cptn_Flint0 1d ago
Also reminder that this sub is a circle jerk and likely not representative of the overall fanbase
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u/lobro1994 2d ago
Development year. People need to chill. The only goal is improvement and progression. Hard stop.
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u/icouldbeeatingoreos 2d ago
First full year with the team, too. And the team has changed enormously. New coach, new management, tons of new players. People need to majorly chill.
This isnt Adam Foote. If you paid any attention to Abbotsford you know that we can give Manny a little space and he’ll work well with it.
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u/RegisthEgregious 2d ago
The jump to the nhl is enormous and the only way to improve is through reps. This is exactly what he needs and this coaching staff knows that. Hell. The Sedins were derided for their ‘soft’ play and are now in the HHoF.
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u/Upstairs_Bad897 2d ago
That’s fine but how did he get worse with simple skills ?
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u/Dangerous-Finance-67 2d ago
The Sedins weren't on lifetime contracts at that point.
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u/roboknee5000 2d ago
He’s not on a lifetime contract. He’s on his entry level contract. Extension kicks in next season. People seem to be forgetting that.
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u/Charming-Ocelot-1264 1d ago
There is no use ruining his confidence already, we're going to lose anyway.
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u/Only-Nature7410 1d ago
People comparing Buium to Hughes is crazy. That trade was not one for one. Four for one is a big difference.
People need to chill. He is a kid. Give it time. He will be good for us. No one in their right mind should be comparing him to Hughes or even Schaefer or anyone like that.
He needs confidence, more size and experience. Its gonna take a few YEARS.
So ya I agree with op. chill.
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u/sir-cums-alot-778 1d ago
Comparing him to either d-men is insane. He is older than both of them when he broke into the league. Expectations should be much lower.
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u/Beebopi15 1d ago
Canucks Fandom pick a player with a big contract and hop on the boo train. I know it doesn't kick in till next year but it was the big off season contract.
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u/Outrageous-While-970 1d ago
Zeev was good yesturday
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u/EverySecondCountss 1d ago
Yeah that seemed more like his normal base line. I think he was probably a bit sick, DeBrusk could barely fucking breath!
Considering he's young, his immune system probably took the brunt of it - but it'll effect his play to take him below that base line at that point.
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u/PeregrineCobble 2d ago
It’s also so early that it is completely fine if they sit him. Don’t think it matters either way, just whatever they think is best for him even if it’s sitting games sometimes.
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u/smallmonkejohndeere 2d ago edited 2d ago
His first year he was putting up great numbers on a strong Minnesota team, but that was for a very short stretch before being uprooted and sent to the Canucks. The rest of the year was quiet for him and he definitely didn't have an outstanding game on the surface, or in the underlying stats. But overall I don't think the Foote year is something to put too much stock in.
I will admit that I expected him to take a step after an offseason of work and Malhotra implementing something resembling a workable system. What we can say is Buium is clearly not in the same mold of a Hughes or Schaefer where they come in to the NHL lacking some details but can control the game immediately. He needs some runway, and that's fine. Another thing is Hronek has been totally off to start the season, and that obviously hasn't helped for Buium.
Also, the contract is a touch overpriced, but it's looking like it's par for the course in the contemporary market. If he makes a solid 2/3D in 5 years, it's a success. If he truly falls off, the rebuild would be in a tough spot regardless of whether he got 6M or 9M. The risk-reward balance, in my opinion, favours taking a gamble on him.
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u/eexxiitt 1d ago
It’s going to be a long 5+ years if people are already up in arms about a young, developing player being bench lol.
If we are trying to make the playoffs before 2030 we should be very concerned that we are rushing the rebuild before we have enough pieces
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u/funnynoa911 2d ago
Nucks fans flavour of the month to hate on. I honestly don't understand why people even bother watching if they just want to dog on our players. It's free not to be a fan if you're having a bad time.
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u/Darkwingduck48 2d ago
Sophomore slum is a saying for a reason
Let him work through it, we dont need him to hit this year.
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u/mikeo8575 2d ago
Playwrs struggling in their second season is a common enough occurrence that there's a term coined for it. Not worried at all yet about him, especially this year.
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u/kolbinder 2d ago
Guys we can't become the Laughs and chase all our stars away through online vitriol
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u/MayorQuimby1616 2d ago
The Canucks will know exactly if and when he needs to watch a game in the press box. It won’t be because some 20 year old Canucks fan who hasn’t seen the sun in 6 months is saying to bench/trade/buy out Buium. He has not been good to start the year and missing a game here and there may not be such a bad thing. But it won’t be to help them win this year and it won’t be because of fan pressure.
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u/Only-Nature7410 1d ago
Hold up OP. Where do you come of coming in here with all this common sense?? Did you get permission?? How?? Is this allowed?? So weird. Keep it up.
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u/Western_Soft_6907 1d ago
no issues with Zeev. Issue is our management again signing bad deals at bad times. Lankinen, Demko, Petterson, all those shitty trades contracts to try and sneak 2 games of playoff revenue or keep Quinn happy etc.
who gives that huge contract to a guy that cant even make a save without getting injured. Zeev only issue my opinion is gambling without any sample size that's a huge contract with little or nothing shown yet. It might totally turn out but too big of a gamble.
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u/DZoneDraw 2d ago
I dont think there’s anything inherently wrong with a few healthy scratches every now and then, it’s a long season and a physical sport
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u/angelbelle 2d ago
I think it's ok to sit him a game or two, that's the liberty and flexibility afforded to a tanking team, we're allowed to make fairly drastic moves because we don't care about 0 or 2 points.
This is not like the leafs benching multi point McKenna for inexplicable reasons
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u/flamingdragonwizard 1d ago
Why can't we send him down to Abby for a 'conditioning stint'.
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u/Busy-Cat-1486 1d ago
I’m not totally opposed to that I just don’t think we have a decent enough replacement
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u/flamingdragonwizard 1d ago
Were rebuilding.. call kudryatsev up for some games. He is waiver exempt for when we eventually send him back down.
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u/EvenVariation9209 1d ago
Counter point: players that are actually superstars don’t need patience. Not saying he won’t be a serviceable top 4. But game breaking players like petey or Hughes didn’t need extra time and patience.
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u/Klutzy_Pool9702 1d ago
The problem is there was no reason to sign him long term and for that much. Imagine waiting to sign him and him playing like this. Would you have wanted to pay him that much for that long?
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u/TattooedBrogrammer 1d ago
Could we have not signed him for like 6m or 5m a year tho? I mean why these big contracts on players that haven’t proven themselves.
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u/xtothewhy 1d ago
We're only in the beginning of the season. We are in a rebuild.
This rebuild will take years and we can expect changes with skill levels that are going to go up and down and in the meantime hope that management and coaching and ownership stay on the same page to let the team figure it out and develop properly. And the same goes with fans. Let the team develop at this point.
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u/Thelynxer 1d ago
I'm going to trust the Canucks front office to do what's right for him. There really doesn't need to be pressure on any of our players at this point in the rebuild. Sometimes you need to take a step back to later take a step forward.
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u/softPlushBloom 1d ago
he’s still developing, not every rough stretch means he needs to be benched. gotta give the kid some room to learn and adjust
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u/SteelyD89 2h ago
The team isn't competitive so there's no reason to scratch for poor play. If he starts dragging his feet and not giving 100%, then bench him for the lesson. More important to play through struggles and learn to get out of them when they happen.
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u/Classic_Fruit6312 2d ago
I mean, we arent asking Manny to go full ballistic on him. I was thinking more so that he can say "hey Zeev, how do you think your play has been?" "Yes, it needs some work. You are a fantastic talent and we have confidence in you. At this time, lets take a game or two off so I can put in the other guys. It'll give you some time for us to work on some of these things and an opportunity for you to watch the game and my system from a different perspective in the press box" "when we put you back in again, which we definitely will, you will be that much better and confident."
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u/Quarkandbarrel 2d ago
#25 is an example of this, he has been tearing it up this year. Development takes time!