Wild Top Prospect Wins Gold Medal At IIHF World Junior Championship

Minnesota Wild top prospect Zeev Buium wins the Gold Medal at the 2025 IIHF Men's World Junior Championships.

Buium, 19, was the Wild's 12th overall pick from the 2024 NHL Draft. He was Team USA's alternate captain for the Tournament.

Teddy Stiga scored the golden goal in overtime on Sunday night against Team Finland. Buium was the one who set up the breakaway goal for Stiga.

The Wild seem to have a stud in Buium. He led the team in ice time on Sunday in the Gold Medal game with 27:58. He averaged 25:13 the whole tournament and had six points, 11 shots on goal, and had a plus-10 rating in seven games.

In his last two years, Buium has won Gold at the 2023 World U18's, Gold at the 2024 WJC, was a 2024 NCHC Champion, a 2024 NCAA Champion, and now a 2025 WJC Champion.

"What a play he made there on the last goal. He was great," Wild head coach John Hynes said on Buium. "I had the chance to watch the last couple games, and really impressed with just, you know, the amount of minutes he played. So you can see in that tournament on a really good team how much confidence the coaches had in him. What you can see by his style of game. It’s exciting."

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