The Vancouver Canucks may have just found their next franchise superstar

Zeev Buium is getting compared to Zach Werenski and Charlie McAvoy, and for a Canucks fan base starving for good news, that comparison matters.

One insider called the Vancouver Canucks defenseman every bit as impactful in all three zones at the college level as either of those two NHL stars were at the same age.

That's not a small claim. Werenski posted 22 goals and 59 assists for 81 points in 75 games this past season, still one of the league's premier offensive defensemen.

McAvoy added 11 goals and 50 assists for 61 points in 69 games, anchoring Boston's blue line at a $9,500,000 cap hit.

The praise didn't stop there either. Buium reportedly outshined even Owen Power and Artyom Levshunov among recent top young defensemen out of college hockey.

Power posted just 8 goals and 21 assists for 29 points in 81 games with Buffalo, numbers that put Buium's college dominance in real perspective.

Winning matters in these evaluations too, and Buium didn't just win in college. He was individually one of the most productive defensemen in the sport at that level.

Buium's rookie numbers show real growing pains

Buium's first NHL season told a rougher story. He posted 6 goals and 20 assists for 26 points across 76 games, finishing at minus-33.

That kind of rookie campaign is exactly what you'd expect from a 20-year-old adjusting to a much faster league, especially one who dominated by controlling play rather than by brute physicality.

What stood out most in college wasn't just the scoring. It was how Buium controlled games from the back end, dictating pace in a way few young defensemen manage.

That control extended to the World Juniors too, where he reportedly excelled defensively in a way that clearly hasn't carried over yet at the NHL level.

Defending against grown men has been the real adjustment, and it's expected to remain a focus area as his development continues in Vancouver.

That gap between college dominance and NHL results isn't unusual. Plenty of highly touted defensemen post rough underlying numbers as rookies before the game slows down for them.

Vancouver finished 25-49-8 for 58 points last season, dead last overall, exactly the kind of season where a player like Buium gets real minutes to work through those growing pains.

That's actually the silver lining here. A rebuilding team can afford patience with a 20-year-old defenseman in a way a contender never could.

Buium slots in alongside Braeden Cootes and the rest of Vancouver's young core, another piece of a pipeline that's slowly taking real shape.

Whether he eventually matches the two-way impact of a Werenski or a McAvoy is still an open question, but the offensive foundation clearly isn't in doubt.

For a fan base living through a full teardown, a defenseman with this kind of pedigree working through rookie struggles is exactly the storyline worth holding onto.