ST. PAUL, Minn. – Defenseman Zeev Buium and goaltender Matt Davis of the University of Denver hockey program were each recognized with individual honors from National Collegiate Hockey Conference, as Buium was named both Player of the Year and Offensive Defenseman of the Year and Davis was selected as the Senior Scholar-Athlete Award winner for 2024-25.
 
The NCHC announced all of this year's award recipients on Thursday night at its annual awards celebration at the St. Paul Event Center on the eve of the Frozen Faceoff. Denver plays Arizona State in the conference semifinals on Friday at 3 p.m. MT at Xcel Energy Center.
 
Davis is Denver's second winner of the NCHC Senior Scholar-Athlete Award, as Gabe Levin also took home the accolade in 2015-16. The honor is voted upon by the conference's nine Faculty Athletics Representatives (FARs).
 
Buium is the fifth Pioneer and third DU defenseman to be named NCHC Player of the Year, as fellow blueliners Will Butcher (2016-17) and Joey LaLeggia (2014-15) picked up the honor previously while forwards Bobby Brink (2021-22) and Henrik Borgstrom (2017-18) also earned the award.
 
The DU rear guard is the fourth overall repeat winner for the Offensive Defenseman of the Year award and the second Pioneer to do it. LaLeggia was named Defenseman of the Year in both 2014 and 2015 before the NCHC split the honor to recognize both offensive and defensive backend players. Denver has taken home the Offensive D-man award in three consecutive years, as Mike Benning also picked it up in 2022-23.
 
Buium, 19, is tied for first among all defensemen in the country with 42 points and leads his position with 30 assists, which also ranks tied for second in the NCAA for all skaters. He has registered multiple points in 11 outings this year and has picked up points in 27 of the 36 games he's played in. His 10 goals on the year are tied for sixth among all blueliners.
 
The San Diego, California, native ranks third overall on the Pioneers in scoring and is also third on the squad in blocked shots (40) and penalty minutes (37), and he owns a plus-14 rating on the season.
 
Buium is one of two unanimous selections on the NCHC All-Conference First Team and has registered 32 points (10g/22a) in the last 26 games he's played. He owns four three-point contests in 2024-25 and began the campaign with three assists on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage. Buium scored three goals on Nov. 15 at North Dakota and became the first Pioneer defenseman to score three goals in a game since Ryan Caldwell on Feb. 14, 2004 versus Minnesota State. It was just the third, three-goal outing by a rear guard in NCHC history—Western Michigan's Ronnie Attard had the previous two: Oct. 19, 2021 at Colgate and Feb. 4, 2022 at Colorado College.
 
Selected No. 12 overall by the Minnesota Wild in the 2024 NHL Draft, Buium was named NCHC Defenseman of the Week three times, including earning the honor following a four-point weekend (1g/3a) against Miami on Jan. 10-11. Those were his first games back at Denver after helping the United States win its second-straight gold medal at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.
 
The 2025 Hobey Baker Award Top-10 Finalist is presently tied for 11th all-time in scoring by a DU defenseman with 92 career points (21g/17a) in 78 games. It is the most points by a Pioneer blueliner in their first two seasons since Greg Woods had a pair of 52-point campaigns as a freshman and sophomore in 1975-76 and 1977-78, and it's the most points in a two-year period by a Denver rear guard since Matt Carle combined for 97 total points as a sophomore in 2004-05 (44) and as a junior in 2005-06 (53).
 
Davis, 23, has played a career-high 35 games (all starts) this year and leads the NCAA with 26 wins. His 26 victories are tied for the sixth-most in a season in program history and are the most by a DU netminder since former teammate Magnus Chrona won 28 contests in 2021-22.
 
The netminder ranks third in the NCHC with a 2.09 goals-against average and is fourth in the league with a .920 save percentage. He posted a shutout on Nov 1 at Yale and joined teammate Freddie Halyk in a combined shutout on Feb. 14 against North Dakota. Davis was named NCHC Goaltender of the Week three times during the year, including after the regular-season finale against Colorado College on March 10.
 
The Calgary, Alberta, native is a four-time member of the NCHC Academic All-Conference Team and has been named an NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete each year as well. Davis was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team as a junior in 2024.
 
Davis owns a .785 winning percentage in his career with an overall record of 60-15-4. In 78 starts and 85 career games, he has registered a 2.15 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and five shutouts. A member of both DU's 2022 and 2024 NCAA Championship teams, one of Davis' clean sheets came in last year's national title game against Boston College, earning Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player honors and becoming the eighth NCAA goaltender and third at DU to post a shutout in the national championship game.
 
Three other Pioneers were finalists for NCHC end-of-season awards, as senior Jack Devine was up for Forward of the Year, senior Carter King for Defensive Forward of the Year and junior Jared Wright for the Sportsmanship Award.
 
The NCHC also recognized its All-Conference, All-Rookie and Academic All-Conference Teams throughout the awards ceremony. Buium was joined by Devine on the All-NCHC First Team while junior forward Aidan Thompson was chosen to the Second Team. Forwards Sam Harris and King and defenseman Eric Pohlkamp were all picked for the All-Conference Third Team. 
 
Denver had 15 returning players recognized on the 2024-25 NCHC Academic All-Conference Team: Kent Anderson, Cale Ashcroft, Garrett Brown, Boston Buckberger, Connor Caponi, Kieran Cebrian, Matt Davis, Jack Devine, Paxton Geisel, Freddie Halyk, Sam Harris, Carter King, Rieger Lorenz, Aidan Thompson and Jared Wright. Additionally, Anderson, Ashcroft, Buckberger, Caponi, Davis, Devine, Halyk, Harris, King, Lorenz, Thompson and Wright were also named NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes by posting cumulative GPAs of 3.5 or better.