The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed two-time NCAA national champion defenseman Boston Buckberger to a two-year, entry-level contract. The deal will start next season. He attended development camp with the Blue Jackets in 2025.
In the official team announcement, president of hockey operations and GM Don Waddell said of Buckberger:
Boston Buckberger is a smart, skilled defenseman who can play in all situations and has a championship pedigree. He was among the top scoring defensemen in college hockey this year and a big part of Denver’s championship team. We are very excited that he is now part of the Blue Jackets organization.
As Waddell mentioned, Buckberger made a name for himself on a national stage at Denver. He was an instant-impact defenseman for head coach David Carle, scoring 27 points in 44 games. He was able to build on that strong freshman campaign the following year, potting nine goals and 30 points in 41 contests. This season, he scored 10 goals and 28 points in 42 games.
While Buckberger has never been the Pioneers’ top offensive option from the blueline (Zeev Buium held that honor the first two seasons, and Eric Pohlkamp this year) he has nonetheless been able to consistently deliver value in whatever role he played. We named him as a player to watch in this year’s NCAA free agency class earlier this month, noting that “there might not be big upside” in Buckberger “returning for his senior season.”
That’s something Buckberger appears to have agreed with, as he elected to sign his entry-level deal and forgo returning to the Pioneers.
Columbus does have a track record to point to when it comes to developing top NCAA blueliners. They signed then-University of Michigan captain Nick Blankenburg in 2022, and he quickly became an NHLer for the Blue Jackets. He also impressed with the Nashville Predators and was a trade deadline addition of the Colorado Avalanche.
While Buckberger isn’t an exact one-to-one stylistic comparable for Blankenburg (he’s a bit bigger, for example), he’ll nonetheless likely hope to have an early career that resembles how Blankenburg’s has gone.