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Moritz Seider shows off the Red Wings’ Stadium Series jersey. (Photo credit: Taylor McHale/Fanatics)

Red Wings’ Seider Taking Steps to Superstardom

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Devin Little | Last updated Dec 13, 2025 8:35 AM ET

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the story of the Red Wings’ rebuild will begin. It could begin with the day the Red Wings were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in a quarter-century. It could begin with the 2018 draft and how momentous that event felt for the Red Wings organization. It could also begin with the hiring of Steve Yzerman as the franchise’s general manager and executive vice president.

However, when all is said and done, I believe the story will truly begin with the first round of the 2019 draft, the night the Red Wings selected defenseman Moritz Seider at sixth overall.

That was the moment the Red Wings began to establish what type of team they wanted to be moving forward. It was the moment the organization established that they were willing to go outside of popular opinion to go get their guy. But most importantly, it was the moment the Red Wings did what they had tried to do since Nicklas Lidstrom retired: find a true foundational piece on defense.

But if Seider’s play this season is any indication, the Red Wings didn’t just find a foundational piece, they found a full-blown superstar.

Seider’s Gradual Growth

When he joined the Red Wings at the start of of the 2021-22 season, Seider made an immediate impact. At the age of 20, he quickly asserted himself as the team’s top defenseman, averaging just over 23 minutes of ice-time a night while producing seven goals and 50 points on a non-playoff team. His efforts earned him the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie that season, and suddenly the whole league was aware of that young German defenseman in Detroit.

Seider did his best to keep his team afloat defensively over the next couple of seasons, but a combination of team-wide poor defensive play as well as an overall lack of talent held the Red Wings back from breaking through. Their top defender often times looked stuck in neutral; he was undeniably a quality defenseman, but he appeared unable to hit that upper-tier of defenders on either the offensive or defensive side of the puck.

Last season, mostly under current head coach Todd McLellan, Seider averaged over 25 minutes a night for the first time in his career. The 23-year-old defenseman, fresh off a seven-year contract extension, was relied on like never before and nearly posted a positive plus/minus rate for the first time in his career. He posted the best possession numbers of his career, and his play even elevated (and sometimes insulated) his young(er) defense parter, Simon Edvinsson.

After a few seasons of being “the Red Wings’ best defenseman”, Seider started to work his way into the conversation of the NHL’s best defensemen. Entering the 2025-26 season, his goal was to build on that momentum and hopefully elevate his team in the process.

With the holiday season upon us, that seems to be exactly what Seider is doing.

Seider’s Impact Growing Larger

First, it must be stated that we are still under halfway through the 2025-26 season, and much can change between now and the end of the season. With that being said, Seider’s offensive numbers seem to have taken a significant leap forward in his fifth NHL season.

Per Natural Stat Trick, the Red Wings are outshooting their opponents 351-229 with Seider on the ice at five-on-five. The Red Wings also control 57 percent of high-danger chances when he is on the ice. As you might guess, they are also outscoring their opponents at five-on-five with their top defenseman on the ice.

With 22 points in 32 games this season, Seider is also on pace to challenge for 60 points in a season for the first time in his career. To put that into perspective, Victor Hedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s top defenseman during Yzerman’s tenure with them, has exceeded 60 points five times in his 16 seasons prior to this one. Hedman also did not reach that mark until his age-27 season, and he is widely regarded as one of the top defensemen of his era.

Seider may not produce like Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes, but his impact on the Red Wings is comparable to Makar and Hughes’ impact on their respective teams. Detroit has been extremely fortunate that Seider has not missed a single game since he joined the Red Wings; it’s not hard to imagine how much they would struggle defensively without their top defenseman.

Given his increased impact this season as well as his overall importance to the Red Wings, this may very well be the first season Seider receives votes for the Norris Trophy, awarded to the league’s top defenseman. In fact, he may be the latest example of why the NHL needs to create a new award for defensemen as he may never get the recognition he may soon deserve because he isn’t as offensively gifted as some of his contemporaries.

“The Red Wings Lack Star Power”

There is a prevailing narrative that the Red Wings are behind the eight ball in their pursuit of the franchise’s 12th championship because their roster lacks the superstar talent needed to compete with the best in the league. Whether it’s Seider, Dylan Larkin or Lucas Raymond, the team’s top talent is often dismissed as “second-tier” talent, not equivalent to the McDavids and the MacKinnons of the world.

While the Red Wings may not have a player of that caliber, there is a difference between superstars and generational talents. Connor McDavid is undeniably a generational player, but his Edmonton Oilers have failed to secure a Stanley Cup during his tenure despite representing the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Final in both 2024 and 2025. The Florida Panthers – the team the Oilers faced in both finals – won back-to-back championships because they had superstars at every position as well as depth to provide balance down the lineup.

If the Panthers can win back-to-back championships without a generational player, so can the Red Wings. To their credit, Detroit is slowly assembling a roster that has superstars at every position – they’re really just waiting for one of their goalie prospects to break through at this point. Seider’s growth this season emphasizes the point: he may not be generational, but he is asserting himself as one of the NHL’s top defenseman. That’s as important a building block as there is in the game of hockey.

There’s no doubt that the Red Wings need more high-end talent before they can talk about championships, but with Seider playing the way he is, Detroit cannot be easily dismissed in the Eastern Conference. If he continues on the path he is on, he won’t be easy to dismiss in the Norris Trophy conversation either.

When an organization begins a rebuild, the first thing they need to do is find building blocks for the future. When the Red Wings made their selection at sixth overall back in 2019, that is exactly what they accomplished. Sooner or later, the rest of the league will realize it too.