Denver, CO -- The University of Denver's Zeev Buium has become one of the country's top defensemen, despite only being a sophomore. Buium, three weeks from his 19th birthday, was just named Defensemen of the Week by the NCHC. The California native scored a hat trick en route to a victory over North Dakota on November 15 to help earn the honor.

"Yeah, I definitely have to give a lot of credit to the boys for setting me up," Buium said. "But it felt good to get one in."

As the 12th overall pick by the Minnesota Wild this summer, he had the distinct honor at the draft to have the team trade up to get him. The Wild would have had the 13th pick and traded their pick with the Philadelphia Flyers to get Buium in the draft.

"It was awesome," Buium said. "It's a great organization, and I am so happy that I was fortunate enough to get drafted by them. And even for them, just to trade up one spot just meant a lot to me. And it's a great feeling. I'm super pumped to be drafted by them."

Buium started his collegiate career last season with the Pioneers but was making an impact early on. He was seeing time on the first and second pairing as a freshman, often with Colorado Avalanche prospect Sean Behrens. What made last year unique was that Buium got to play his first year with his older brother, Shai Buium. Zeev saw both Shai and Behrens as mentors for him and learned a lot from them both.

"Yeah, it was awesome," Buium said, playing with them both. "I love playing with him [Shai]. Obviously, he's a great big brother and a great hockey player as well. So just learning from him, and things that he taught me last year, that I've taken into this year, especially leadership-wise, has been huge for me. And you know, even with Sean Behrens too, they're both great mentors for me last year, and I missed them both a lot, but obviously, they moved on to play pro, and it was a good time to play with them. I mean, he's [Behrens] is almost at our house every weekend, so I am a little sick of him."

The Pioneers have something special in Buium. He is a puck-moving defenseman who can control the play at will. Buium has the power play to his arsenal this season and excelled at it as well. Buium is now tied with teammate Eric Pohlkamp and Maine's Brandon Holt for the most points by a defenseman in the NCAA this season with 13. But once this kid goes pro, the NHL better watch out for his speed and puck-moving abilities. He already has a Collegiate National Championship under his belt and will have his eye set on the Stanley Cup right away.