Updated 2x at 6:56 PM: Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider spoke in surprisingly hushed tones when he addressed the media today…
But Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff duly notes that it’s officially Seider season, after a long set of social media crushes on the German defender turned Swedish Hockey League superstar, and while Seider is genuinely happy to have finally reached the cusp of making an NHL team’s roster, he’s not letting the memes go to his head:
“I’m super happy right now,” Seider said. “It was a big wait to get here. I’m really proud of myself, making my way up here and now I’m here and I’m really looking forward to it.”
As for all the social media buzz about Seider, touting him as the German Lidstrom, insisting that there will be nothing but blue skies in the Red Wings’ future from the moment he plays his first shift, well, hate to break it to you but your crush – yeah, he hasn’t really noticed you.
“It’s definitely not getting in my head,” Seider said of the social media frenzy surrounding him. “I just want to be around the guys. I want to come to the rink and work hard and so far I’m enjoying that. It’s obviously cool that the fans are really excited. All in all, I think I’m even more excited.”
There probably hasn’t been this much hype about the arrival of a Red Wings prospect since Henrik Zetterberg showed up for the NHL rookie tournament in 2002. And that one turned out okay. That being the case, the Wings are of the belief that the best tack to take with the good ship is to dial back the intensity.
“I’m not going to put an expectation on him,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I think he’ll get the opportunity to play and play big minutes as he earns them. If he earns more, he’ll get more. If he doesn’t earn more, he won’t get more. So, we’ll see how it goes. He’s definitely a guy who’s got a lot of potential that I think is going to become reality but now he has to go out on a game by game basis and do it.”
Continued; I’m expecting Seider to make the team, and take some lumps early on, but learn from them quickly.
Update: Here’s a little more on Seider from MLive’s Ansar Khan:
Continue reading Duff: Fall is here, and so is Seider season