You might think that Zeev Buium would be ready for some time off after a whirlwind March and April.

His last seven weeks or so have included a NCHC Tournament trip to St. Paul, a NCAA win where he was the MVP of two games for the University of Denver, a Frozen Four trip, a runner-up finish for college hockey’s top honor, inking his first pro contract and making his NHL debut with a quartet of playoff games.

And after all that, the immediate plan was not to find a hammock and a cold beverage, or even to return to campus and catch up on some classwork. Buium hopped on a plane bound for Europe on Sunday afternoon to join Team USA for the IIHF Men’s World Championship, which begins Friday in Denmark and Sweden.

“Everything’s been crazy,” Buium said when he met with reporters Sunday as members of the Minnesota Wild cleaned out lockers and packed up for the summer. “Just coming in, trying to do whatever I can to help and at the same time, the whole experience of being in the NHL and being in the playoffs, I’m just very, very thankful for the opportunity.”

To say he was thrown directly into the fire of the NHL postseason is an understatement. In Game 1 of Minnesota’s series versus Vegas, Buium took his rookie lap and his first NHL shifts, and before the game was over, he was playing the point on the team’s top power play unit. He also was on the ice with the goalie pulled as the Wild tried, and ultimately failed, to tie the game in the final minutes.

After a costly penalty late in Game 4, he was a healthy scratch for the final two games of the series and admitted that being taken out of the lineup was a learning experience. But he had no complaints, and teammates certainly had no beef with the small sample size they saw from the 19-year-old.

“We had to get a fake ID for him when we went to the bar the other night,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno joked. “His skills are outrageous. I think you’re going to see an unbelievable player next year. I really do.”

Buium made his reputation with USA Hockey (World Juniors gold medal) and Denver (NCAA title, Hobey Baker runner-up) as an offensive defenseman, running the show from the blue line with his team on the power play. Wild fans got to see glimpses of that in the first four playoff games, and also saw a newbie adjusting to the notably faster play of the NHL — especially when it’s down to 16 teams.

“It definitely gave me a perspective of how my summer is going to look, and know how you take your training to the next level,” Buium said. “Everything I’ve done to this point will be about doing it even harder. I’m excited. I want to have a big summer and come into camp and be ready to go.”

In his initial assessment of Buium, Wild coach John Hynes talked about the accelerated pace of the game, as well, and the defenseman learning how quickly shot lanes open and close compared to the more leisurely plotting of college hockey. In Game 1 versus Vegas, Hynes trusted Buium enough to be on the ice for a 6-on-5 situation late in the game with the Wild trailing by a goal and Filip Gustavsson pulled.

The rookie attempted a pass along the blue line to Matt Boldy that was intercepted.

“I tried to slide it over to Bolds, and they picked it off and I think that was my kind of, ‘This is the NHL It’s not just going to get to that guy,’ ” Buium said. “I think for me, that was probably the biggest thing, how guys are selling out and everyone’s sticks are so good and detailed. I think that was the moment for me being like, ‘Oh well it’s gotta be quicker or find a different lane.’ ”

With Brock Faber making the jump directly from college to the NHL two years ago in April, and playing big minutes in his first playoff series, there were inevitably going to be comparisons. Faber himself said on Tuesday that those are not apples-to-apples.

“He handled it so well. Doing what he did is so much harder than doing what I did. It’s been compared, however,” Faber said. “I got to play two regular-season games. I got to play on the penalty kill. I got to play about 20 or so minutes, 24 minutes or something, my first two games of my career in the regular season when (the playoffs were) already clinched.”

Faber watched with some awe as Buium not only dove headfirst into playoff intensity, but worked in an offensive role. And Faber saw a glimpse of what he is sure will be a long and decorated career.

“That’s hard to do what he did. I thought he handled it really, really, really well. Came in for the right reasons. He cared. He wanted to help make an impact,” Faber said. “He wanted to help this team win and he has such a bright future. … The older he gets, the stronger he gets, he’s going to get more confident and the way he skates, it’s going to be scary.”

Buium and Team USA open World Championship play on Friday afternoon with a 1:20 p.m. CDT game versus host Denmark. It can be seen on NHL Network. Former Gophers standouts Brady Skjei, Jackson LaCombe and Logan Cooley are also skating for the U.S.