I’ve tried to leave the Moritz Seider press conference-related articles in a single post, but I guess this is rule-breaking day, because this quip from Seider, noted by MLive’s Ansar Khan, deserves its own post:
Seider’s first contract after his entry-level deal makes him the team’s second-highest player, slightly below Dylan Larkin’s $8.7 million AAV. But it won’t add any more pressure on him.
“I want to be good every single night,” Seider said. “That shouldn’t be a matter of how much you make.”
He added, “I think there are a lot of people who thought I was a reach (when drafted sixth overall in 2019), and I had a chance proving them wrong, and there are other guys thinking this contract is not right, so I’m ready to prove them wrong again.”
Seider celebrated by taking his parents and his agent and agent’s family to dinner in Germany before hopping a flight to Detroit. He and his buddy Lucas Raymond, who signed an eight-year pact with an $8.075 million AAV a few days before, are sure to spring for a team dinner during an early season road trip.
“It’s great to give back now,” Seider said. “The team helped us a lot to get there at this point and obviously we’re excited to get on the road, play at home, play in front of the fans again and I think we’ll have a good time. I’m just really happy to wear that jersey for a very long time now.”
Continued; given that The Athletic’s Luszczyszyn, Gentille and Goldman ranked Seider in a very middling tier of players this morning, because, and I quote…
For Seider to reach Tier 3 and beyond, he needs to prove he can handle the heat — as hot as it is — much better than he currently has.
Maybe it’s a good thing that Seider’s still got a huge chip on his shoulder.