10:37 a.m.: Buium’s deal carries a cap hit of $925K, per PuckPedia. He’ll earn a base salary of $832.5K, a $92.5K signing bonus, and a minors salary of $80K each season.
9:48 a.m.: The Red Wings announced that defense prospect Shai Buium has signed his three-year, entry-level contract. The deal begins next season, although he’ll finish 2023-24 on an amateur tryout with AHL Grand Rapids. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Detroit selected Buium in the early second round (36th overall) of the 2021 draft. The 21-year-old turns pro after three seasons at the University of Denver, recording an assist in last weekend’s national championship game as the Pioneers won their record 10th NCAA title. He also won a championship with DU in his freshman campaign.
He doesn’t have the ceiling of his younger brother, 2024 projected top-10 pick Zeev Buium, but he’s still a legitimate prospect. He totaled 14 goals and 75 points in 120 games with Denver over the past three years with a +61 rating, including a standout 36-point, +33 rating campaign this year. The latter tied with Zeev for the fourth-best in the country, while his point total was good enough for eighth place. He was named to the NCHC All-Rookie Team in 2022 and took home conference Second All-Star Team honors this season.
A strong-skating puck-mover, Buium likely isn’t ready for NHL action yet. He’ll need at least one full season of development in Grand Rapids but should challenge for NHL call-up duty at the very least by the end of his ELC. The 6’3″, 220-lb left-shot blue-liner has a pro-ready frame, though, and there’s a good chance he could step into top-four minutes in the minors next season. He was ranked 11th in an incredibly deep Red Wings prospect pool by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler earlier this year, who projects him to top out as a steady third-pairing piece at the NHL level.
Buium’s ELC will expire in the 2027 offseason, at which point he’ll be an RFA. The Red Wings will control his rights for three further years until he becomes automatically eligible for unrestricted free agency as a 27-year-old in 2030.
Putting all of the making the wild card hoopla aside, Detroit has amassed 91 point on the season. Would have been a team morale boost to hit a playoff berth but missing by the tie breaker shouldn’t discount the progress made. New bench and coaching may have made some errors in giving up points early on that often are so badly needed in the back stretch. One of those is overplaying a weakened goalie early season. For whatever reasons, Husso’s performance dropped off yet he continued to start in early games that the team should have won and banked the points. (Opinion).
Not faulting Husso much he might have been fighting a hidden injury that erupted later to put him out of action altogether. Who knows, but the signs were there. As were the issues with defensive coverage by the entire team. Giveaways were yet another pothole to fix. Regardless the season was an improvement. Now on the the fine tweaking and the next season. I’m sure Yzerman and staff are up to the task.
Agreed, and we have no tough guys upfront, except Perron (who shouldn’t be) and Rasmussen. Looking at the roster, no one is over 6’2″ except Ras and if the other team is physical – Dallas, Ottawa, Florida, we get pushed to the walls.
Sam Reinhart is an ass to play against and would add some bite. Tyler B. is 6’2″ and a pest, but still got pushed around, but who is a top-6 rugged player, like a Tom Wilson. We just have eleven skilled players who get out-muscled.
We had a good year with a bad month. But how’d you like to be Phily, or Pittsburgh or Jersey. Mega-collapses.
A 3-11 record in March certainly didn’t help their case to make the playoffs. I understand Larkin was injured for the majority of those games but still to lose twice to Arizona and once to Buffalo was inexcusable. Coaching and bad Defense hurt the Wings all year, so this is where the focus should be this offseason, which starts too early once again for this team
Wings should trade up & grab his brother so they can play together!