The Detroit Red Wings were on the clock back in 2019 when they decided to draft defenseman, Moritz Seider, with their sixth overall pick. Looking back on that draft today, I would say they made a very good move- but just how good can Moritz Seider be in this league?
You see a lot of defenseman in this league come into high expectations but fall off when the pressure and expectations gets to them. Moritz Seider however is in his first season with the Red Wings has shown the potential to be a future superstar defenseman in this league. But to most NHL scouts this season isn’t much of a surprise.
Looking back to 2019, there were a lot of scouting reports out there on Moritz Seider and almost all of them were positive. But for some reason, despite having tons of reports saying nothing but impressive things, he was a unexpected pick. Looking at his game today, it looks even more ridiculous that people once thought that selecting him with the sixth overall pick was a reach.
Now, I’m saying all of this but I still haven’t addressed the remaining question about his game: If this is how good he is in year one, just how good could he be in a couple years?
We’ll when you take a look at some of the defenseman around the league, it’s really difficult to try and find a defenseman who accurately resembles his game and his true potential. I mean Moritz Seider has unanimously been named the Red Wings cornerstone defenseman for the foreseeable future. I mean, maybe Simon Edvinsson can give him a run for his money, but as of right now, it’s Moritz Seider.
Throughout the season, Seider has shown terrifc hockey sense in the d-zone, shown that he can play on the power play, the penalty kill, he’s good for 23 minutes a night, and he has shown that he is one of the best defenseman in the league when it comes to playing in transition.
This season Seider has played in 70 games for the Detroit Red Wings. In those 70 games, Seider has five goals, 40 assists for 45 total points. Additionally he has 141 blocks, 115 hits, and 40 takeaways. I mean those are all great stats regardless of your time and experiance in this league little lone when your a rookie.
So I suppose now it’s time to officially answer the question: Just how good can he be?
We’ll it’s a hard question to answer given how many unknowns there are at this point in time. There could be a injury, there could be a big change in the organization, there are just so many unknowns. But, the ceiling for him is definetly one of the best to do it. I mean, Seider can be a guy to produce sixty points every season while obtaining 100 blocks and hits.
That being said, finding a pro comparison for him is very difficult because there havent been many players that can do what he does. After doing a lot of research the closest I was able to come up with was Zdeno Chara. I don’t think of that being the best pro comparison, but I look at that as a good thing.
You look at some of the best defenseman in the league today, you have Victor Hedman, Cale Makar, Roman Josi, Adam Fox, they are all terrific but they don’t compare to Seider. They all will put up more points, but when it comes to the defensive talent Seider posses, they don’t compare at all.
On this trajectory, Seider could become one of the best defenseman to do it. If he can continuously put up sixty points, as well as 100 blocks and hits, he will findhimself in the hockey hall-of-fame.