A deep dive into Moritz Seider and what he means to the Detroit Red Wings

Moritz Seider's good, but how good can be for the Detroit Red Wings?

The biggest questions at this point include how good is Seider? Has he reached most of his potential? How much room does he have left to grow? Is it a matter of waiting—similar to what we saw with the current captain of the Red Wings in Dylan Larkin where he needs more of a supporting cast? Is he already an elite star player in the league?

The answers to these questions vary. 

Red Wings fans, myself included, seem to overvalue their players (I mean, I don’t know of any fanbases that don’t overvalue their players) while objecting to criticisms thrown their team’s way—especially towards the team's top players.

A team like the Red Wings in a city like Detroit, Michigan, makes it an even more delicate situation. 

Detroit, Michigan is underrated in every sense of the word. The prototypical underdog city that very few individuals appreciate outside of Michigan itself. The Chrysler 200 Super Bowl Commercial from 2011 sums this concept up pretty nicely:

Seider’s play makes it easy to root for Seider and defend him against anyone who sees him as less than a star player. The reasons fans might take it a step further and have an almost possessive quality over Seider might stem from people underestimating him in the same ways of Detroit. In many ways, Seider embodies the people of Detroit itself.

This season, Seider isn’t getting much love from people outside of the Red Wings fandom. 

Many stats show his numbers as poor with some nights showing that he was the worst on the team as depicted below:

Seider’s numbers in widely accepted statistics don’t look great either. The fact that he doesn’t look great in those statistics doesn’t do a disservice to Seider. Furthermore, they don’t invalidate the statistics. It serves as a good reality check for Red Wings fans.

His Corsi for percentage (CF%), or the “percentage of total Corsi while that player is on the ice for that player's team. CF*100/(CF+CA), and goals for percentage (GF%), or the player's percentage of total Goals while that player is on the ice that are for that player's team. GF*100/(GF+GA), are at a career low per NaturalStatTrick.com. 

I’ve seen a lot of reactions to numbers on social media rejecting those statistics because it makes Seider appear less than the star we all know he is for the Red Wings.