NHL.com/de’s Axel Jeroma posted a very lengthy article which reviews Moritz Seider’s 2024-2025 campaign, and while there’s a lot of text here, there are some new comments from Seider as well. What follows is roughly translated from German:
Seider takes on his duty
Season review 2024-2025: The Red Wings’ defenseman still sees potential for improvement for both himself and his team
The 2024-2025 NHL season was full of highlights, action and exciting games. NHL.com/de looks back on the seasons of the best players from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In this edition: Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings
Moritz Seider and the Detroit Red Wings experienced a nerve-wracking season. At times, it looked as if the team could return to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2016. But in the hot phase of the fight for a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference through March and April, the historic club ran out of air. Therefore it was not enough in the end. Three more wins and the Red Wings could have punched their ticket for the postseason.
In his fourth year in the NHL, the German defenseman experienced his first change of coaches. On the 26th of December, Detroit separated itself from coach Derek Lalonde. At that time, the team was in 27th place in the league with 30 points (13-17-4) in 34 games. The team’s management made Todd McLellan the new man in charge of the team.
With him, the Red Wings managed to turn around. In the first 20 games under his leadership, the Red Wings earned 15 wins and collected 31 points. No other of the 32 teams had as good a record in the time between December 26th and February 4th. After a brilliant race to catch up, Detroit was on track toward a playoff berth.
The 4 Nations Face-Off from February 12th to 20th and the interruption in the league schedule came at the worst time for the Red Wings. They lost their rhythm and never really got going again until the end of the season. “It’s obvious that we came out of the kick after this tournament and didn’t find our connection any more. We lost too many games in March. Of course, the start to the season wasn’t optimal, and that makes it difficult in the end. But we were in it in February, and then we fell out of the playoff picture again. We had it in our own hands and didn’t manage it,” said Seider, explaining in his exclusive blog on NHL.com/de after the playoffs began.
Seider himself did everything to reach the postseason with his team. In his fourth NHL season, he played in all 82 games. Thus he built his personal Ironman streak to 328 games on North American ice. His average ice time of 25:04 last season was also an NHL best for him. This also made him the busiest player on his team.
Seider was once again convincing by his unbridled will. He registered 212 checks and blocked 181 enemy shots. These were by far the best values in these categories.
In terms of scoring, Seider saw an uptick compared to his past two seasons. After 42 points twice, he had 46 points. Only his NHL premiere season was better, when he scored 440 points. In the third game of 2024-2025, in a 6-4 home defeat against the Dallas Stars, he scored a goal and added two assists. During the 4-2 away win on the 4th he posted 3 assists against the Winnipeg Jets in January. In seven more games, the Red Wings blueliner said he had the points of a scorer.
“I already had a goal of producing more points, but it was still a successful year in many respects. This is how we’ve developed further on the power play. We were in the top 5 of the league. I helped with my part in this,” Seider said.
In general, however, he wishes that the Red Wings’ defenders would be more involved in scoring. There is still a lot of room for improvement compared to the league. In this respect, he also wants to grab his own nose. “As a leader, I want to go ahead. I definitely have to score more in the future. You can’t expect the younger players to lead the team, but the leaders have to do that and I don’t take that away,” Seider made clear.
All in all, he was happy with the performances on the team. “The new coach brought in a lot of momentum. I would say that we improved. We have shown that we can win against top teams, and not just once or twice. That’s a good sign. However, we still have to learn to be there in crunch time, and also to score two points in difficult games,” he assessed.
The German national team also benefited from the Red Wings after the regular season. Seider ran the Deutscher Eishockey Bund selection at the IIHF World Championship in Sweden and Denmark, and even was named captain. But he also missed the knockout round with Germany.
In the upcoming season, Seider will once again make another attempt to overcome the Red Wings’ playoff-less streak, which has been going on for nine years, together with his teammates. The basis for this will be created at training camp in September.
