Denver junior forward Jared Wright has signed a two-year, entry-level contract beginning in 2025-26 with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.

Wright will report to Los Angeles’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, on an amateur tryout for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.

Wright registered 17 points on nine goals and eight assists while playing in all 44 games during the Pioneers’ 2024-25 season. He tied for fourth on the squad with a plus-17 rating and blocked 28 shots to help DU reach its second straight NCAA Frozen Four.

A 2024 national champion, Wright was a finalist for the NCHC sportsmanship award as he had just six penalty minutes during the season and took only eight infractions and 16 penalty minutes across his three years at Denver. He ranked tied for ninth on the team in goals in 2024-25 and had three point streaks of three games last season.

The Burnsville, Minn., native skated in his 100th career game on Jan. 11 against Miami and recorded his 50th career point in a contest versus the RedHawks as well with an assist on Feb. 22 in Oxford, Ohio. Wright recorded career highs with two assists (tied) and three points (goal, two assists) on Feb. 1 versus Omaha and posted a plus-4 rating in that contest as well — tied for the highest plus-minus in a game this year by a Pioneer.

He registered an assist in three-straight NCHC postseason games from March 16-22, tying a career best, and scored in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday against eventual national champion Western Michigan. The marker was his second in his eight career NCAA tournament contests, as he also tallied the game-winning goal in the 2024 national championship game against No. 1 Boston College in his home state of Minnesota on April 13, 2024.

Wright posted personal highs during his sophomore season in 2023-24 with 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points. He led the team with a .205 shooting percentage and tied for first on DU with five game-winning goals. The right wing went on a career-long, six-game point streak from Nov. 3-19, 2023 (four goals, three assists) and scored at least one goal in four straight outings from Feb. 17-March 1, 2024 (five goals).

As a freshman in 2022-23, he was second among rookies on the squad with 12 points (eight goals, four assists). He scored his first goal and also added an assist for his first multi-point outing on Nov. 11, 2023 at North Dakota and tallied twice the next night versus the Fighting Hawks to complete a four-point weekend (three goals, assist), earning NCHC forward of the week honors. He also tallied twice on Dec. 3, 2022 against Arizona State for his second of three career multi-goal efforts.

A back-to-back winner of DU hockey’s Dr. Ken Bredesen Most Sportsmanlike Player award (2023-2024), Wright was also named to the NCHC academic all-conference team and was a NCHC distinguished scholar-athlete in each of his three seasons on the DU hilltop. He was also recognized as an AHCA All-American Scholar in 2022-23.

He finishes his collegiate career with 54 points (32 goals, 22 assists), 16 penalty minutes and a plus-35 rating in 122 games. He skated in each of his final 86 games dating back to March 17, 2023 after missing six outings at the end of his rookie regular season with an upper-body injury.

Wright was selected by Los Angeles in the sixth round (169th overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft. He attended the Kings’ prospect development camp each of the last three summers.

Denver sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium has signed a three-year, entry-level contract beginning this season with the Minnesota Wild.

Buium is expected to make his NHL debut on Tuesday night in the Wild’s regular-season finale against the Anaheim Ducks at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

The DU sophomore was named the NCHC player of the year during the 2024-25 season, and he led all NCAA defensemen in scoring with 48 points while ranking second among all skaters with 35 assists — only teammate Jack Devine had more helpers in the country (44). A unanimous selection on the NCHC all-conference first team for the second consecutive campaign, Buium recorded a career-high 13 goals and registered multiple points 13 times. He picked up points in 30 of 41 games he played and tallied 38 points (13 goals, 25 assists) in the final 31 outings.

A Hobey Baker Award hat trick finalist — Denver’s first since Bobby Brink in 2022 — Buium finished third overall in scoring and blocked shots (50), second in penalty minutes (44), and his plus-17 rating was tied for the fourth highest on the squad. He was also named a first team all-American for the second straight season, becoming one of 14 repeat all-Americans in Denver’s history and joined Devine as the school’s first repeat first-team members since Henrik Borgstrom in 2017 and 2018.

Buium garnered NCAA Northeast Regional most outstanding player honors this postseason after combining for five points on two goals and three assists in victories against No. 2-seed Providence and No. 1 Boston College on March 28-30 to help Denver secure its second straight Frozen Four berth and its sixth trip to the final weekend in the last nine seasons. The rearguard tallied in both outings of regionals to stretch his goal streak to a personal-best three games, and he picked up his fifth three-point outing of 2024-25 with a goal and two assists against the Friars in the regional semifinals.

The San Diego, Calif., native began the campaign with three assists on Oct. 5 at Alaska Anchorage and scored three goals on Nov. 15 at North Dakota to become the first Pioneer defenseman to record a hat trick since Ryan Caldwell on Feb. 14, 2004 versus Minnesota State. It was the 10th hat trick by a D-man in school history and was just the third three-goal outing by a rearguard in the NCHC — Western Michigan’s Ronnie Attard had the previous two on Oct. 19, 2021 at Colgate and Feb. 4, 2022 at Colorado College. Buium also recorded a trio of points on Nov. 9 vs. Lindenwood (three assists) and Jan. 10 vs. Miami (goal, two assists) and owns 10 such three-point contests in his collegiate career.

He was named NCHC defenseman of the week three times this past year and six times in his career, including earning the honor following a four-point weekend (goal, three assists) 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 defenseman served as an alternate captain on Team USA, averaged the second-most ice time among all players at the tournament (25:13) and had assists on both the game-tying and overtime-winning goals in the championship final against Finland.

A repeat winner of the NCHC offensive defenseman of the year award in 2024-25, Buium finishes his career ranked 10th all-time in scoring by a DU rearguard with 98 career points (24 goals, 74 assists). It was 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 1976-77.

Buium reached the half-century mark in his freshman campaign at Denver in 2023-24, recording his 50th point on an assist in the Frozen Four national championship game against No. 1 Boston College to help the Pioneers capture its NCAA-record 10th national title. He finished the year with 11 goals and 39 assists in 42 games.

He ranked second on the Pioneers in scoring behind Devine last campaign, and it was the first 50-point season by a Denver freshman since 1983-84 (John McMillan, 57; Dwight Mathiasen, 51). Overall, it was just the sixth time a Denver rookie reached the mark and the third instance by a Pioneer blueliner, with him joining Craig Redmond (54) in 1982-83 and Greg Woods (52) in 1975-76. The Californian was recognized as the NCHC rookie of the year and was a finalist for the Tim Taylor Award as the national rookie of the year.

Making his collegiate debut on Oct. 7, 2023 at Alaska, Buium recorded his first point on Oct. 8 at UAF with a goal and also added an assist for his first of 25 career multi-point contests. Buium went on a personal-long 12-game point streak (four goals, 17 assists) from Nov. 3-Dec. 9, 2023 for the longest by a freshman defenseman in the NCAA in the last 21 years (online databases presently don’t go back any further than 2002), surpassing Boston University’s Lane Hutson’s previous long of 11 games in a row from Dec. 11, 2022-Feb. 6, 2023. It was also the longest streak ever by a defenseman in NCHC history.

Buium registered a career high in points with four assists on Nov. 25, 2023 against Yale, tied for the most helpers in a game during the season by a Pioneer and the most by a DU freshman defenseman since at least 2002. The performance also marked just the third such instance since 2016 by a rookie D-man in the NCAA (Boston University’s Lane Hutson, Feb. 3, 2023 vs. Maine; Minnesota’s Brock Faber, 5, March 27, 2021 vs. Omaha). Overall, it was just the 14th time that a Denver defenseman recorded at least four helpers in a game and marked just the fifth occurrence since 2004-05. He went on to tie his career high in points with one goal and three assists on Jan. 20, 2024 at Omaha.

Overall, Buium registered 12 multi-point games and tallied three or more points on five occasions as a freshman. He tied for the team lead with his brother, Shai, and ranked fourth in the NCAA with a plus-33 rating — the highest ever by a Pioneer since the statistic first began being tracked in 2005-06. He tied for second on DU in power-play scoring with 14 points (goal, 13 assists) and ranked third on the squad with 41 blocked shots.

A product of the U.S. National Team Development Program, Buium helped Team USA to gold medals in each of the last three seasons: 2023 IIHF U18 World Championship and both the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships that were also coached by DU’s David Carle.

A communications major at Denver, Buium has also given back to the local Jewish community. He met with young and aspiring Jewish hockey players from Aish of the Rockies several times over the past two years, and he joined teammate Sam Harris in hosting a “stick and puck” session with those players at DU on Oct. 8, 2024.

Buium was selected in the first round (12th overall) by the Wild in the 2024 NHL Draft. The Pioneer was the first American chosen at last year’s event and is the second-highest draft pick in program history (Craig Redmond, 1984, No. 6 overall, Los Angeles Kings).

He won a pair of championships with the Pioneers in 2023-24 at the Wild’s home arena, Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, earning the NCAA title on April 13, 2024 and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff tournament on March 23, 2024. Buium was named to both the NCAA Frozen Four and the Frozen Faceoff all-tournament teams that year, and he tallied twice, including his first overtime-winning goal, in the conference semifinals versus St. Cloud State on March 22, 2024.

Denver junior forward Aidan Thompson has signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Thompson will report to Chicago’s AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, on a professional tryout for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign. His NHL deal will start with the 2025-26 season.

Thompson recorded career highs during his junior season with the Pioneers by registering 21 goals and 34 assists while playing in all 44 games. He finished second in the NCAA in scoring with 55 points, trailing only teammate Jack Devine (57). He was one of 19 skaters in college hockey to record at least 20 markers this year and his 34 helpers were third-most in the country, with only fellow DU players Devine (44) and Zeev Buium (35) having more.

The Fort Collins, Colo., native played on the top scoring line in the country with Devine and Carter King and finished top 10 among all players in shots (164), finished with a plus-16 plus-minus rating, won 68.5% of his faceoffs and recorded personal bests with seven power-play goals and three game winners, including an overtime marker and his second tally of the night on Feb. 7 at Arizona State.

Named to the NCHC all-conference second team and a member of the NCAA Northeast Regional all-tournament team, Thompson became the third Pioneer to reach the 20-goal threshold after scoring on March 28 against Providence in the regional semifinals in Manchester, N.H. He registered 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his final nine games and had eight goals and 17 assists in his final 19 contests, including scoring in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinals against Western Michigan on Thursday in St. Louis.

The DU alternate captain began this season by registering a point in each of the first 14 games, a career-long point streak from Oct. 5-Nov. 23 that featured 10 goals and 12 assists and was the third-longest overall in the NCAA during the year. The forward’s run was the longest season-opening point streak by a Pioneer in the last 10 years (since 2015-16), surpassing Henrik Borgstrom’s 11-game run to begin the 2017-18 campaign. The 14-game streak was also tied with Bobby Brink for the second-longest by a Pioneer in the last two decades (Dec. 31, 2021-Feb. 19, 2022), with only Danton Heinen’s run of 18 straight contests from Jan. 22-March 27, 2016 being longer. Thompson also registered a personal-best seven-game assist streak from Oct. 18-Nov. 8.

He had 16 multi-point games during the campaign, including setting a career high for assists and points in a game with four helpers on Oct. 19 versus Northeastern—tied for the most in a contest by a Pioneer during the season. He recorded a three-point outing two weeks later with an assist and his second of three multi-goal efforts on Nov. 2 at Yale. He finished the two-game series at Yale with four points (two goals, two assists) and earned his first career forward of the week honor from the conference on Nov. 4.

A Hobey Baker Award nominee, Thompson led the NCHC in scoring during the month of November with 11 points (six goals, five assists) and was named the league’s player of the month, his first such honor of his collegiate career. Overall, he recorded a point in 36 of the 44 outings and never went more than two contests without registering a point.

He appeared in his 100th career game on Jan. 25 at Minnesota Duluth and became the 104th member of the Pioneers’ 100-point club after recording an assist on Feb. 21 at Miami. Thompson finished his Denver tenure with 42 goals and 75 assists for 117 points, ranking tied for 62nd on the program’s all-time scoring list. After missing the first eight games of his career with a lower-body injury suffered at the 2022 World Junior Summer Showcase with USA Hockey, Thompson never missed another outing and played in all 120 contests at Denver.

Thompson made his DU debut on Nov. 4, 2022 versus St. Cloud State and recorded his first point the next night with an assist. He tallied his first goal and added an assist for a multi-point performance on Nov. 11, 2022 at North Dakota and recorded a second goal the next day against the Fighting Hawks in Grand Forks, helping him earn NCHC rookie of the week honors on Nov. 14, 2022.

Finishing his rookie campaign in 2022-23 with 10 goals and 22 assists, Thompson was named the team’s recipient of the Barry Sharp Freshman of the Year award. As a sophomore in 2023-24, he helped Denver win its NCAA-record 10th national championship and registered 11 goals and 19 assists while skating in all 44 contests during the campaign.

Thompson was selected by the Blackhawks in the third round (90th overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft. He attended the team’s prospect development camp in each of the past three summers.