This week, an Israeli took a big step to be the first to play in the NHL as 18-year-old hockey star Shai Buium was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round of the draft with 36th overall pick.
Buium is the son of Israeli immigrants as his mother, Miri, played basketball professionally in Israel.
His parents married in Israel after serving in the army and then moved to Los Angeles. Buium’s father, Iulian, wound up in the HVAC business.
With Israeli parents and being raised in San Diego, to say Buium came from a non-hockey family would be a massive understatement.
Additionally, as the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, San Diego rarely produces top NHL talent, making his Israeli heritage coupled with his San Diego upbringing even more of a rarity for an NHL pick.
At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Buium has a demanding physical presence. As he told the Detroit Free Press, he met with the Red Wings brass many times before the draft.
“They just want to get to know you,” Buium said. “They asked about your family and what kind of kid you are, and what type of hockey player I think I’m going to be in the future. I think I’ll be able to be a good, solid top defenseman in the NHL, playing a two-way game.”
He played Triple-A hockey in LA, then attended the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep in Minnesota and recorded an astounding 26 points in 50 games with the Sioux City Musketeers of the USHL.
An Israeli player in the NHL has yet to occur, making Buium’s Israeli heritage quite significant for the country.
Meanwhile, talk about goals: Luke Hughes has become the third brother in his hockey-playing Jewish family to be drafted in the first round of the NHL Draft.
The New Jersey Devils picked the 17-year-old defenseman fourth overall in Friday’s selections, making the Hughes brothers of Orlando, Florida, the first American family to have three siblings drafted in the National Hockey League’s first round.
Jack, a center, was chosen first overall by the Devils in 2019 – earning the distinction as the first Jewish player ever taken No. 1. A year earlier, oldest brother Quinn had gone to the Vancouver Canucks with the seventh pick.
The brothers’ athletic prowess isn’t so surprising considering their genes: Their mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, played ice hockey, soccer and lacrosse at the University of New Hampshire. Later she was a member of the US women’s hockey team at the 1992 Women’s World Championships, where she was named a tournament all-star and helped Team USA take home the silver medal.
Their father, Jim, is a former ice hockey player for Providence College and has worked for the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL. Mom is Jewish, dad is not.
“We did Passover when we were younger,” Jack Hughes told “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN Radio in 2019. Jack also had a bar mitzvah.
Along with brother Quinn, Luke Hughes has another Jewish defenseman to emulate: Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, who this season was named the winner of the James Norris Memorial Trophy signifying the NHL’s top defenseman. Other Jewish players in the league include Zach Hyman and Jason Zucker.
JTA contributed to this report.