2025-26 Season Spotlight: Moritz Seider

A stronger backbone

Nov 13, 2025

Moritz Seider watches on before a faceoff — Credit: NHL.com

The Red Wings have lost three consecutive games to drop outside the playoff bubble. In spite of these recent troubles, they should feel confident in their ability to steady the ship for a few reasons:

They’re a better 5-on-5 team this season (11th in xGF% vs. 24th last year).
They’ve had the second-worst puck luck in the league (96.4 PDO).
Moritz Seider is playing the finest defense of his career.

With the hubbub surrounding Dylan Larkin and rookie Emmitt Finnie, it’s easy to overlook the value of Detroit’s defense-first 1D. Let’s correct that.

Gap Control

You can understand the temptation to label Seider as old-school. He’s a 6’2”, 210-pound, no-nonsense, all-situations blueliner. Rugged, rangy, reliable. The stuff hockey dinosaurs’ dreams are made of. Upon closer inspection, however, you’ll notice a 24-year-old RHD who bridges the gap between tried-and-true defensive pillars and modern technique.

Ever since his arrival in 2021-22, he’s been a downhill NZ defender. Rather than loafing in his backskate, he acts as the aggressor in these engagements, closing the distance in a heartbeat to fluster forwards leaguewide.

Yes, this proactive style is wired into his DNA. But with a full offseason to absorb Todd McLellan’s vision, Detroit has unleashed the stingiest version of Seider yet. Its slightly firmer five-man posture is allowing him to follow his gut, leaping at any opportunity he detects to stymie the opposition’s transition game.

Don’t just take my word for it. Golden Knights rearguard Noah Hanifin penned a riveting three-act story on the subject:

“I’m wide open!”

“Wait.”

“Uh-oh.”

In his study of an early-season attacking pattern in Columbus, Eric Schumacher over at Pøcke CBJ (home of the best Blue Jackets coverage around) succinctly categorized gap quality:

“Great gaps, and great defensemen, can kill plays and turn them into offense. Merely good gaps force dump-ins or buy time for forwards to back-check and recover, to create order. Bad gaps create poor spatial relationships with teammates and result in chaos and chances against.”

That’s the difference for Seider in 2025-26. He’s offering the usual wealth of good gaps, but there are more great ones because his mind is no longer scattered. He can finally trust his surroundings—at least more than in the past—and devote the bulk of his efforts to killing plays ASAP without compromising his squad.

By hauling the back line further up ice, he can float a couple of feet away from potential pass recipients and then break on the puck or maul forwards on reception. He’s downright glued to his mark for most of the night, which means teams that wander onto his side of the rink are frequently running into a brick wall. They can barely chip the puck past him:

You aren’t safe vs. Detroit’s left side either. If he gets the jump on a change of possession, he’s rangy enough (6’2”, 210 lbs with a top speed in the 66th percentile) to slide over, cut the NZ in half and restrict your options before you’ve turned your eyes up ice.

Seider’s knack for defending while skating forward comes in especially handy in these scenarios, as he shuffles/strides across and squeezes puck-carriers from the inside out with ease.

Space is erased in no time flat:

Although his surfing and stick checks remain dependable, Seider’s off-puck NZ defense is flourishing. He’s repelling outlet passes with the cadence of a crisp 1-2. They catch, he dispatches. Sometimes, the mere suggestion of his presence acts as a deterrent. Detroit is reaping the rewards overall, but Simon Edvinsson has perhaps been the biggest (literally) beneficiary. The 6’6” sophomore couldn’t establish a stable partnership with Axel Sandin-Pellikka to open the campaign. Playing next to Seider, meanwhile, has afforded him A+ insulation.

The Red Wings’ tilt vs. the Golden Knights on Nov. 4 revealed the extent to which their RD1 can simplify your decision-making process without even making a direct play on the puck:

VGK has a 4-on-3 counter in the works. Since there isn’t a nearby threat on his side, Seider shades beyond the center logo to cordon off middle ice and inform the youngster’s leverage (hold the dot lane). Keegan Kolesar (VGK 55) plays too fast to capitalize on the numbers advantage and Detroit converts its rush defense into a clean retrieval.
The second clip demonstrates Seider’s newfound faith in his team’s solidity. Off an OZ faceoff loss, he banks on Dylan Larkin (DET 71) skating with Brett Howden (VGK 21) and decides to swarm the slicing William Karlsson (VGK 71). Mitch Marner (VGK 93) doesn’t like those passing odds and settles for a harmless area flip. No hesitation from Seider —> no breathing room for Karlsson —> no sweat for Edvinsson.

When you consider the step up in competition (Seider’s usage is notoriously brutal), the difference between the Swede’s performance alongside Seider vs. Sandin-Pellikka has been remarkable: 59.6 vs. 42.8 xGF%, 63.6 vs. 15.4 GF%.

Their grouping seems temporary, though. With all due respect to Sandin-Pellikka, Ben Chiarot, Albert Johansson, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic (seriously), forming an uber-top pairing removes any semblance of depth from the blue line—and Edvinsson-Seider can’t log the ~45 minutes a night required to make up the difference. No, this duo’s chief purpose should be to get Edvinsson rolling again.

Indeed, Seider’s NZ defense is so suffocating that simply playing with him can shift the tide. The with/without stats show it. So do his underlying numbers. Among the 110 D-men who have logged 250+ minutes at 5-on-5, he’s conceded the seventh-fewest shot attempts:

While shot suppression is only part of the defensive puzzle and there will be growing pains for a team in its first full season under McLellan, his 1D is doing everything in his power to keep them at bay.

In-Zone Defense

If Seider’s NZ play is defined by proximity, his DZ play is defined by interiority. Freed from the compulsion to put out five fires at once, he can now maintain a vice grip on the inside track.

He’s built for the job too, sporting a long wingspan and polished fundamentals. Watch him block off home plate over and over again:

The fifth-year blueliner’s physicality is a wonderful bonus in the trenches, but it’s his razor-sharp stick work that stands out in his film. He gauges distance and adjusts his grip to bounce between max range and max density as though it’s a walk in the park.

When he’s eye to eye with the deepest threat or has the element of surprise, he extends to muscle you off your platform. When there are other forwards in the mix and the puck-carrier has an additional beat with which to play, he goes short and compact, crouching to add his feet/body to the picture. The puck can strictly travel around him. Not through him.

Thanks to Seider’s range and play recognition, his blade has gotten awfully familiar with the biscuit:

Speaking of play recognition, his hockey sense doesn’t get its due. He’s developed a habit of bailing Detroit out of sticky spots via his anticipation. After DZ giveaways or on odd-man rushes, he quickly scans the on-ice geography (offensive spacing, defensive support, etc.), communicates his and his teammates’ assignments and takes it upon himself to smother the likeliest destination.

He filters out the noise to silence your most attractive target:

Seider’s prioritization of the deep slot is a real headache to deal with. Once you’re within striking distance—his striking distance, that is—his stick work, textbook positioning and brawn bring your progress to a screeching halt. Linger outside the dots all you want. You won’t get inside the house. And you can’t lure him to the fringes on account of Detroit’s hybrid scheme. If he sniffs a slot pass, he’ll peel off his zonal responsibilities to provide assistance in the guts of the ice.

It’s not impossible to score when he’s out there, of course. Keeping forwards in front of him just limits the danger to low-percentage bids (e.g. deflections, scrambles, etc.). You have to manufacture offense the hard way.

The 2019 sixth overall pick’s devotion to interiority manifests itself on retrievals as well. In loose-puck or chip-and-chase scenarios, he races to snatch leverage away from F1, and almost like a forward who thrives in protection, he then uses his broad shoulders to absorb pressure and carve out a cushion with which he can move the puck:

Grant him more time, and he can send Red Wings forwards a tidy first pass. He’s become fond of the indirect side switch (0:37 and 0:44) this season:

So, let’s recap: He breathes down your neck in the NZ, won’t budge from the slot in the DZ and facilitates the breakout. Moreover, this is the best roster he’s played on as a pro. Is it any wonder that he’s rocking his lowest xGA/60 yet (19th among blueliners who have logged 250+ minutes)?

Although the second-lowest OISV% of his career has put a damper on his GA/60 (I mean, the tandem consists of John Gibson and Cam Talbot), 2.22 is already stellar when you account for his usage. Lest we forget, Seider faces the opposition’s top guns every night. In fact, he’s squared off against a veritable murderers’ row of talent over the past two weeks.

Here’s how he fared at 5-on-5:

Against burgeoning superstars and an MVP candidate in Eichel, Seider broke even, conceded a total of ONE goal and comfortably won the scoring chance battle in three of those four games. We call that shutdown defense.

I wouldn’t lump him in with Jaccob Slavin and Gustav Forsling quite yet, but he’s earned his place alongside names such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Adam Pelech and Colton Parayko. Maybe not the flashiest pieces. On a team that otherwise pulls its weight, however—and Detroit is getting there—a stout, minute-munching defender (6th in TOI/GP) can make a world of difference.

Remember the Chris Pronger comparisons following Seider’s 50-point rookie year? Let’s put them to bed. There isn’t a single defenseman in today’s NHL who boasts that kind of size and all-around command over the action.

And that’s fine. Seider’s influence is most pronounced when he’s in pure stopper mode anyway. The proof is in this season’s pudding. Alongside one EV point in 16 contests, his airtight 200-foot defense has translated to career-high shot attempt (57.9), expected goal (54.9) and goal (54.2) shares:

Seeing as these numbers have come against the league’s deadliest forwards, he’s stacking the deck night in and night out for the 9-7-0 Red Wings.