Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider spoke with the podcast “Eiskalt auf den Punkt” (Ice-Cold to the Point) recently (as I translated last week), and NHL.com’s Oliver Jensen uses some of Seider’s comments as a jumping-off point to NHL.com/de’s analysis of the state of the Red Wings going into the 2022-2023 season. Here’s a translation of his piece:
Seider wants to battle with for the playoffs with the Red Wings: “We can believe in ourselves”
NHL.com/de’s 32 in 32: German Moritz Seider wants the sporting thirst of the Red Wings to end and to become a driving player himself
Moritz Seider’s first season in the NHL was like a fairy tale. The German defenseman was the Red Wings best assist-provider with 43 assists, he scored seven goals himself, and he was awarded the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie. The 21-year-old thus followed in the footsteps of superstars like Kirill Kaprizov, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon and the legendary Mario Lemieux. Never before had a player from a German-speaking region won this award.
“It’s a huge honor to be able to accept such an award at all. It’s an incredible confirmation of the work that you do,” the defenseman said in a recent interview with the Deutsche Eishockey Liga’s “Eiskalt auf den Punkt” podcast. However, he himself had not given much thought as to whether he would win this award beforehand.
“Actually, I was always teased about it on the team because we had another contender on the team, Lucas Raymond, who was very keen to be one of the finalists, and so it was always fun. We always teased about each other, if one played a better game than the other, or we both had a great game,” said Seider.
The 20-year-old Raymond was the team’s third-best scorer with 23 goals and 34 assists. The Swede was selected a year later than Seider, specifically in the 2020 NHL Draft, fourth overall. Seider was the number 6 pick in 2019. In the end, Raymond was not among the three finalists for the Calder Trophy, but he was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month in November, and selected to the All-Rookie Team.
It was an advantage for Seider to have a player in the locker room who was almost the same age, and had a similar level of abilities. “I enjoyed having someone by my side who was going through the same things. I didn’t expect it to end so positively,” he said. The defender from Zell, Germany knows that his strong rookie season has raised expectations. However, he doesn’t feel too much pressure.
“You live day by day, and enjoy the time with the boys, and have a lot of fun doing it. So pressure is not an issue,” he explains. “You’re just happy that the others support you and that you can share it. For me, the idea is always that the team comes first, so it’s relatively easy for me to deal with it.”
He’s also retained his youthful looseness. “I’m doing well with it. For me it’s just important to be able to look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and say that I haven’t pretended, and that I’ve stayed myself. Of course I also accept one or two criticisms that help me progress. But I don’t have to let everything get to me,” he explains.
Now Seider is about to start his second season in the NHL, and he’s already looking forward to the start of the preseason. “The anticipation is slowly building. We’ve got a lot of new players, especially from free agency. I think everyone’s looking forward to meeting the new faces. We’re going to have a really cool time then.”
According to Seider, the team was already well-assembled last season, in which the Red Wings won 32 of the 82 games and improved compared to the previous season. “We had a really cool mix of older guys who’ve been in the NHL for 10 or 11 years and know what’s important, and young players who are around my age and need to hone their skills and earn their name on the back of their jersey. You learned something new every day.”
Now it’s a question of ending the sporting dry spell of the once-so-successful Red Wings, who’ve won the Stanley Cup eleven times, but have missed the playoffs for the past six seasons. “We want to take the next step and play for a playoff spot all season long, and I think we can do that,” says Seider. “We’ve got leadership qualities. We need that. We also have some young players who now know how it works. We’re ready to do it and take the next step.”
However, Seider is aware that the changes on the team are accompanied by a process of discovery. “Of course, a lot has happened in Detroit. We want to make sure that everything meshes and that we become one,” he explains. Seider would like to do his part. And not as a talented player, but as a top performer, and maybe even a leader. “Of course you want to take on more responsibility, and, like last season, you want to be on the ice in all situations and be there at the key moments,” he clarifies, adding confidently: “You don’t have to hide any more when you’ve got something you want to address. The most important thing for me is to just lead by example on the ice. Then it’s easier to address the things that you need to when one has given everything and done everything right.”
