Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider spoke with the Hockey News from the NHL/NHLPA European Media Tour on Friday, and he also spoke with NHL.com’s Dan Rosen regarding the uncertainty surrounding Detroit at present:
Seider says he is ready to take another step in his on-ice progression toward being among the game’s best defensemen. To him, that is the best way to help.
“I mean, you should always treat it like the sky is the limit; if you don’t aim for the stars, it’s tough to reach them,” he said. “If you don’t want to compare yourself to the best, you’re probably never going to be in a conversation with them. It’s been really good what I achieved so far, but there’s plenty of room to work on. There’s plenty of opportunity to get better, and that’s something I have to shift my focus to because you want to get better, you want to be in conversation with the best defensemen in the League. I’m not there yet, but obviously that’s where I see my opportunity to shine is to just get better and better every single year.”
Last season was his best since he joined the Red Wings for the start of the 2021-22 season. Seider had a career-high 60 points (10 goals, 50 assists) and led his team with a plus-15 rating. It was the first time in his five seasons that he has been a plus player for a season. Seider also ranked third in the NHL in ice time per game at 25:40.
“I want to establish myself as a guy that people are not happy to see on the ice,” he said. “I think that’s the one of the biggest compliments you could get is that people are not happy to see you — in a good way. I think that’s where I see my challenges to do everything I can to shut the best forwards down in every single game. And I think if I can approach that, I give our team a good chance to win. I think you can win a game 1-0 and if you do that, you get two points and that’s a very simple message.”
Seider also kind-of-sort-of addressed the loss of Patrick Kane and the mess surrounding disgruntled captain Dylan Larkin, at least in oblique terms:
“All the other topics, they’re meant to be decided by management and I’m a player and don’t have to think about that too much,” Seider said. “I can just come and do my job, and I will be excited for a new year, and until then, I think there are some questions that need to be answered, but they can’t be answered by me.”
Despite the lack of answers on many topics swirling around the Red Wings, Seider does know one thing as he prepares to head to Detroit for the start of the 2026-27 season.
“I think we’re still very proud to play in front of our fans and make the organization proud,” Seider said.
Continued; I hope that Seider’s right, I really do.
