If this column has proven anything to this point, it’s that hockey is becoming a more global sport than we ever thought possible. 

But this hockey story begins in the unlikeliest of places: Israel, where Miriam Buium was starring as a professional basketball player in her home country. At the time, she didn’t even know about hockey.  

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Little did she know that her life would take a dramatic turn, as she and her husband Sorin would immigrate to the United States, settle in San Diego and have two sons who would become some of the biggest NHL prospects to ever come out of California. 

Her second son, Shai Buium, discovered hockey during a family trip to watch a cousin play when he was six years old. He saw the sport and immediately was hooked. He just had to play. 

He threw himself into the sport with full enthusiasm, eventually catching the attention of the Los Angeles Jr. Kings Program. 

If you’ve been reading this column regularly, this is starting to sound like a broken record; the Jr. Kings program has been an essential youth hockey experience for nearly every NHL player to come out of the L.A. area. 

But taking this step to level up Shai’s career meant driving back and forth between San Diego and L.A. several times a week. It took a huge amount of sacrifice from Miriam and Sorin, but they supported their son enthusiastically. 

Shai’s younger brother Zeev would eventually join him at the Jr. Kings, and their hockey careers have been on different but parallel paths to NHL stardom ever since. Both of them attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, a boarding school in Minnesota with an elite hockey program. However, their paths diverged slightly after Shattuck-St. Mary’s. 

Shai spent a season with the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League, putting up 26 points in 50 games. This high-level play caught the attention of the Detroit Red Wings, who drafted him with the 36th overall pick in the second round of the 2021 NHL draft. He has since attended the University of Denver, with whom he won a national championship during the 2021-22 season, his freshman campaign. 

Zeev seemingly has hunted to one-up his brother. He went to the USA Hockey National Team Development Program after high school, where he built a reputation as one of the highest-scoring and most versatile young defensemen in the world. He also earned a scholarship to the University of Denver where he started to play at the young age of 17.

If Zeev played spectacularly for the USNTDP, he’s been playing absolutely out of his mind at Denver. With 32 points in only 22 games, he’s taken the Denver offense to new heights and shot up the draft boards. Most experts predict he will go in the top 10, with some even projecting him as a top-five pick. 

Right now, the brothers are focused on chasing a national title together. It may be the last time they play hockey together; since Zeev will likely be off the board before the Red Wings make their selection in this upcoming draft, they’re perhaps destined to be the next great brotherly rivalry, akin to the Hughes brothers.

But this season in Denver is a rare and beautiful situation. Never have we seen an elite blue line of Israeli American brothers from San Diego chasing a national championship together. 

The Buium bros. are a perfect example of the increasing globalization of hockey, which will make the L.A. ice scene, and the sport as a whole, better. 

Ethan Inman is a junior writing about Los Angeles’ unique hockey heroes in his column, “L.A. on Ice,” which runs every other Wednesday.