- Moritz Seider says Red Wings players deserve “a little bit of blame” for how things ended under Steve Yzerman
- Detroit missed the playoffs for a 10th straight season after a 3-8-2 finish
- Read below for Seider on Dylan Larkin, the empty GM chair and his own ceiling
Moritz Seider is not putting all of Detroit’s mess on the front office.
Detroit’s top defenseman spoke Friday at the NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour, his first long session with reporters since Steve Yzerman stepped down as general manager. Asked about the man who drafted him in 2019, Seider pointed the question back at the room.
“Obviously you never want anything like that to happen, but then you also start questioning yourself,” Seider told The Hockey News’ David Alter. “’Did the team do enough to make us a proud franchise?’ I think that’s where we can take a little bit of blame.”
There is plenty of blame to hand out. Detroit went 41-31-10 and finished seven points out of a playoff spot, closing 3-8-2 over its last 13 games while getting outscored 54-38 in that stretch.
Seider was asked about the March collapses that keep repeating on him, and he did not pretend they were bad luck.
“It’s our common theme for the last past seasons,” he said. “We head into March in a really good position and we kind of just toss the season away. Don’t really have an answer for it, to be honest. If we knew what to fix, we would have done it, more than once now.”
Captain Dylan Larkin asked for a trade in June and is still on the roster. Patrick Kane signed with Chicago on July 25. The GM chair is empty while ownership works through a list of candidates.
None of that lands on Seider’s desk, and he made sure to say it.
“It’s just up to management,” Seider said. “I’m a player and don’t have to decide all those things. I think there’s a big list of things that need to be addressed, and whoever’s going to be the new person I think will guide us in the right direction.”
His own season was the best of his career. Seider put up 60 points (10 goals, 50 assists), led the club at plus-15 and ranked third in the NHL at 25:40 of ice time per night. He also has not missed a game in five years, 410 in a row.
Take a look at what that season looked like:
The 25-year-old told NHL.com’s Shawn Roarke he is nowhere near finished.
“It’s been really good what I achieved so far, but there’s plenty of room to work on,” Seider said. “I’m not there yet, but obviously that’s where I see my opportunity to shine is to just get better and better every single year.”
One bright spot in the trip home: Seider is a lifelong Bayern Munich supporter, so the league’s new partnership with the club landed well, and he got a kick out of seeing JJ Peterka and Leon Draisaitl turn up there a day before his own media session.
Cologne and Munich also host Global Series games in 2027, which gives German kids NHL hockey in their own buildings.
Camp opens next month with an interim front office, an unhappy captain and an 84-game schedule to get through. Seider says this group can beat anyone in the league. Stringing it together from October to April is the part the Red Wings still have not solved.
