Sports Illustrated’s Dan Falkenheim posted a list of Calder Trophy candidates to watch this upcoming season:
Moritz Seider | Detroit Red Wings | D
Before 2020, Seider hadn’t earned many superlatives beyond best German blueliner prospect in nearly two decades. He wasn’t even a top-three European defenseman in his draft class. That changed, quick. Seider, at 19, joined the Swedish Hockey League’s Rögle BK for the 2020–21 season. There he scored seven goals and 28 points, led Rögle BK to the league’s finals and took defenseman of the year honors. He became the youngest winner in the award’s seven-year history.
A two-way right-handed defenseman who can play with the puck and with an edge, Seider has grown from a draft-day reach to a likely opening-night roster lock. He can thrive on the power play, where the Red Wings have scored the second-fewest goals per game over the last three seasons. Taking instruction from another big-bodied blueliner, Niklas Kronwall, Seider is hoping to develop further into Detroit’s top-pairing defensemen of the future.
