He's logging veteran minutes as he lopes toward Rookie of the Year, and this is just the start for Moritz Seider. This is just the regular season. We've yet to see him in the playoffs, where the ice tightens and stars tend to shine. Seider both shrinks the ice and opens it with his 6'4 frame and has stared down stars all season long.
Remember opening night? In his NHL debut against the defending champs? Seider needled Victor Hedman, of all people, by taking the puck off his stick after a whistle, then went nose to nose with the former Norris winner and his partner Mikhail Sergachev when they objected. It hardly changed the game, but it did tell us something about Seider's psyche.
Remember that night in Pittsburgh? Seider took a fist to the chin from Sidney Crosby after a scramble in the crease, threw a bigger one back, then threw aside Bryan Rust without ever taking his eyes off the two-time MVP as he drove him into the boards. Remember the very next night in Detroit? Seider went blow for blow in another scrum with Auston Matthews, standing taller and smiling wider each time the Rocket Richard winner swung back.
These are the matchups Seider seems to relish, matchups that will only loom larger when the Wings return to the playoffs. When they get the taste of an old playoff rival Wednesday night at LCA, you can bet Seider will be out there anytime Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen take the ice for the Avs. He's chewing up more minutes than all but one rookie in the past nine seasons as it is.
Seider makes the game hard for players who typically make it look easy -- while making this look easy himself. With his long strides, poise on the puck and imposing presence, it's easy to see him as the Wings' version of Hedman, the two-time Stanley Cup champ and 2020 Conn Smythe winner who anchors the best team in hockey. Hedman, by the way, averaged 22:55 per game over his first 10 seasons, almost exactly what Seider is biting off as a rookie.
"He has great hockey IQ," his veteran teammate Sam Gagner said this week on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast. "He’s one of those guys who isn’t afraid of the moment, ever. If you saw a clip earlier in the year, after a whistle he just kind of takes the puck from Hedman, just toying with him. It’s situations like that where he’s just not scared of the moment. It’s awesome. I’d imagine in playoff hockey, he’s going to be an absolute beast."
Asked if he advised the 20-year-old Seider to maybe leave the NHL's biggest, baddest defenseman alone, Gagner laughed and said, "No, he's one of those guys, like you said, who's a stallion and you don’t want to reign him in. Just let him do his thing. It’s been fun to watch."
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Well before he arrived in the NHL, Seider drew comparisons to another Cup-winning, All-Star defenseman in Alex Pietrangelo. The skating and smarts and size checked out. So did the passing. Then he showed up with this physical edge that paired with his fluidity almost resists comparison altogether. If not Hedman, Seider is something closer to a relic.
"Mo has that kind of physical presence that for a skilled defenseman, there’s not many guys like him anymore," said Gagner, drawing from his 15 years of experience in the NHL. "He can beat you a lot of different ways. He’s running our power play, guys try to run him and he reverse shoulders them. He’s got so many elements that it’s tough to compare him."
As for Detroit's other Rookie of the Year candidate Lucas Raymond, Gagner said he "controls the game like a Mitch Marner would," a comparison that's been made for Raymond in the past. The 19-year-old winger has lived up to it by leading all rookies in points, on pace for 62. Marner posted 61 as a rookie in 2016-17.
"Everything kind of goes through him," Gagner said. "The puck’s on his stick all the time. He makes a ton of great plays, he’s got amazing hockey IQ and he just keeps getting better as the year goes on."
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Neither Seider nor Raymond has missed a game this season, no small feat for a rookie. (No small feat for any player over a grueling seven-month schedule.) Gagner said "they carry swagger," but nothing that the veterans in Detroit's locker room have told them to tone down. Nothing that hasn't been earned.
"They’re great kids," he said. "They work so hard, they’re always the last guys (to leave) the ice and so respectful. These kids that are coming into the league now are so skilled and so good, you don’t want to stifle that in any way. You just want to let them grow, and we’re seeing it first-hand here."
Which has sewn the seeds of a future for the Red Wings, and a return to the playoffs under GM Steve Yzerman. Whenever they get there, they'll have a guy named Mo on their, uhm, Seid.
"We feel it," said Gagner, a pending free agent whose own future is unclear. "We’re growing. We got some young guys that are coming up that have been instrumental to our success. If you want to be a winning team, you need those guys to step into your lineup and carry the load.
"But I think any time you look at what Stevie built in Tampa and what he’s starting to build here, it’s something you want to be a part of. Trusting that management is going to do the right thing to help move your team forward is a big thing as a player, and they’re making the right moves. It’s been fun to be a part of."
