Red Wings’ Seider Deserving of Norris Trophy Votes

Offensively, Seider’s 60 points ranked 11th among NHL blueliners and was a career high. He was consistent all year in this regard – driving offense for the Red Wings from the back-end. Seider also saw his power play production tick up and ended the season with 25 power play assists (tied with Cale Makar) and 28 power play points, which was fourth-best among defensemen.

He was also tasked with playing a shutdown role, playing upwards of 25 minutes a night and defending against the league’s best forwards – where he thrived. Overall, he played the 15th-most minutes against elite competition among NHL blueliners and ended the year with the ninth-best Defensive Rating. 

Offense and defense – Seider was excellent at both ends of the ice. Analytics and the eye test agree.

“He’s in my top five even though he didn’t make the playoffs,” noted NHL analyst Elliotte Friedman on a recent episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. “He’s not going to be at the top, but when you watched him throughout the year, he’s a really good player. He eats a ton of minutes, right-shot and he’s everything that would excite you as a Red Wings fan or as a hockey fan.”

One factor that could work against Seider in voting—as Friedman alluded to above—is team success. Historically, Norris Trophy voters tend to favor players on playoff teams, often using team performance as a proxy for impact. Detroit falling short of the postseason will likely suppress his placement on ballots, regardless of individual merit. But that raises an important question: should a defenseman be penalized for factors outside his control?

In Seider’s case, the answer should be no. In fact, his value may be even more evident because of Detroit’s shortcomings. He was leaned on heavily in all situations—often tasked with masking team-wide defensive inconsistencies while still driving offense. Few defensemen were asked to do more, and even fewer executed it as effectively.

Final Word

This year’s Norris Trophy race will be an intriguing one. Cale Makar, Zach Werenski, Quinn Hughes, Rasmus Dahlin, Evan Bouchard, Miro Heiskanen, Matthew Schaefer, Jake Sanderson, and Lane Hutson all put together impressive seasons in one way or another.

But if you’re following the letter of the law and judging the candidates based on the trophy’s true definition, then Seider should be the pick. No one else topped Detroit’s defenseman if you’re looking at play at both ends of the ice. 

Simply put, Moritz Seider was the NHL’s best all-around defenseman this season.

Data courtesy of All Three Zones, HockeyStatCards, NHL.com, Natural Stat Trick, and PuckIQ.