Nicklas Lidstrom had a decent career. He never accomplished what Moritz Seider did on Thursday night. Seider's five-point game, the first by a Red Wings defenseman in 41 years -- with Detroit's season on the line, no less -- pushed him into the NHL's top 10 defensemen in scoring this season and further into a conversation that Lidstrom dominated almost every year: Norris Trophy?
At the very least, Seider has to be considered.
"I think making the playoffs is a big factor in that," said Dylan Larkin, "but the way he defends, what he means to our team, and the role, the matchups he gets every night, it’s 82 games and he’s never missed a game in his career, and it’s been like that since the day he arrived."
Seider's durability is worth beholding: he's played in 407 straight games since making his NHL debut five years ago, the second longest active streak among NHL defensemen to Brent Burns, a cyborg who last missed a game in ... 2014. And Seider isn't just out there. He logs some of the heaviest, hardest minutes in the league based on deployment and quality of competition, and he hardly bats an eye.
At the end of his media scrum following the Red Wings' 6-2 win over the Flyers Thursday night, Seider was asked if there's a threshold for minutes that he couldn't imagine himself crossing in a game and he sort of shrugged and said, "Nope."
And that was that: "Thank you."
Moritz Seider: "That’s only 1 of 4. And that should be the message into our locker room right now: We need 6 more points and then we’ll see where we land."
On Larkin: "He’s our leader. We believe in him. We don’t really care what you guys say about us outside this locker room." pic.twitter.com/JLvBFzOXfJ
— 97.1 The Ticket: (@971theticketxyt) April 10, 2026
"He is like a diesel engine -- they just keep running and running -- yet he’s a greyhound," said Todd McLellan. "He can go. And it doesn’t phase him. I can’t remember seeing him bent over in a shift where the legs are just so stiff that he can’t move, and he’s been caught out there a few times for lengthy ones. If I was picking somebody on our team that would run marathons or ultra-whatever (Ironmans), it would be him. Incredible athlete."
Seider's game is more complete than ever. When he settled around the 45-point mark each of the last three seasons, there was a sneaking feeling that his 50-point campaign as a rookie might represent his offensive ceiling -- not that there would be anything wrong with a 50-point, shutdown defenseman! But Seider has blown past that this season, while staying true to his position. He's turned 50 points into 50 assists, the first Red Wings defenseman to hit that mark since Lidstrom in 2008.
And this is where his Norris candidacy really gets interesting: Seider is now tied for 10th among defensemen with 60 points, and the only one among them who's started the majority of his shifts in the defensive zone, per data from Hockey-Reference.com. For some added context, percentage of offensive zone starts for the league's top-five scoring defenseman this season:
- Evan Bouchard (91 points): 62%
- Zach Werenski (80 points): 59.2%
- Quinn Hughes (76 points): 64.5%
- Cale Makar (75 points): 64.2%
- Lane Hutson (75 points): 69.7%
Seider, by comparison, has started just 48.8 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, 42.2 percent at five on five. This is partly the product of playing for a lesser team with fewer offensive zone starts to go around, but a larger testament to Seider's ability to tilt the ice in his team's favor wherever and whenever he's on it. In other words, to overcome his circumstances.
"He’s a different player than Zach and Hughes and Makar, but he’s just as important to our team," said Larkin. "I can’t say enough good things about him, how tough he is, how hard he is. Those guys don’t grow on trees, and to get a guy like that who eats minutes and sacrifices his body and then tonight he’s on the good side of a lot of plays because he can, he can make plays, and he has confidence to do it."
Dylan Larkin: “Let’s keep fighting for our lives”
On playoffs: "Saying it is one thing and going home and thinking about it all day and night and driving my wife crazy for all the ups and downs, but to go out and do it, that’s what we did tonight as a team. It takes all of us." pic.twitter.com/dLzOoIF8g6
— 97.1 The Ticket: (@971theticketxyt) April 10, 2026
More and more, the Norris Trophy has become an offensive award. The last seven winners have ranked either first or second among defensemen in scoring. The last exception was Victor Hedman, who ranked fifth with 63 points in 2017-18. But as the award is written, it goes to the defenseman "who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-round ability in the position." Don't count on Seider winning it this year; it's still really hard to look past the offensive production of some of the stalwarts above, Werenski in particular. Here's a heady thought for the Red Wings and their fans, all the same:
Seider is growing into Detroit's version of Hedman, a menacing, tireless shutdown defenseman with offensive ability who plays in all situations and averaged about 68 points (per 82 games) over a 10-year stretch where he was a perennial Norris candidate, beginning in his age-25 season. Seider turned 25 this week. It boosted Hedman's stature that he was one of the best players on the NHL's best team during this run, often starring deep into the playoffs. That's the next step for Seider that Larkin is talking about.
Getting there -- to the playoffs, where he's never been -- is all that Seider really thinks about. The Red Wings have long odds to make it with three games to go, thanks to another second-half slide for which Seider isn't entirely blameless. But Seider won't let them go quietly. On the heels of Tuesday night's crushing loss to the Blue Jackets, Detroit's third straight defeat, Seider "was excellent in practice" on Wednesday, said McLellan.
"His leadership was real good. When the mood was kind of iffy to begin with, I thought Mo did a real good job setting the tone there, and it carried over into the game."
With his team on the brink Thursday night, Seider delivered the biggest game of his career. He sandwiched a pair of power-play assists around a power-play goal on a bomb of a one-timer that gave the Wings the lead early in the second, then added a couple even-strength assists in the third to help put the game away. It was the Wings' best third period in quite some time, when they badly needed one. Seider's fifth point of the night came on a perfectly feathered pass to Larkin on a two-on-one rush that set up the captain's hat trick.
Larkin is the Red Wings' leader by example, even laughing at himself for "expressing a little bit of emotion" by pumping up the crowd after his goals Thursday night. He speaks softly, but honors the 'C' by competing hard. Seider, in his first season wearing an 'A', brings more sizzle with the steak. He has an edge the locker room lacks. He even took the chance to come to Larkin's defense Thursday night with the captain facing some external criticism amid the Wings' latest late-season letdown.
"He’s our leader. We believe in him. We don’t really care what you guys say about us outside this locker room," said Seider. "We always trust him. He’s an important player, and he definitely put the team on his back tonight, and we need that three more times."
They also climbed aboard Seider, whose broad shoulders are only growing stronger.
"He does do everything, and he does do it well, almost all the time," said McLellan. "It’s actually quite remarkable when you think of his age and what he’s already accomplished. And he’s getting better, which is a real good sign for him and for us."
