As Red Wings move past Yzerman era, it’s Moritz Seider’s time

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Moritz Seider went into this offseason looking to decompress.

It’s an annual challenge for him, even in normal years. When he goes home to Germany, Seider knows he needs to heal, rest and recover. But after a week or two, he always starts feeling a restless urge — “the tickling hands,” he calls it — to get going again. This year, after that initial cooldown, he took a trip to Spain and relaxed near the ocean.

He was a world away from the frustrating end to the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025-26 season, which left them outside the playoffs for the 10th straight season. But even that distance couldn’t shield him from what was going on back in Michigan.

First, Dylan Larkin, the Red Wings’ captain for Seider’s entire career, requested a trade. Then Steve Yzerman, who made Seider his first draft pick as Detroit’s general manager back in 2019, was removed from his position, with still no permanent replacement announced.

“It was hard,” Seider said last week, sitting outside a coffee shop in Detroit’s northern suburbs. “Especially like not being here and hearing all this noise.”

He leaned on phone calls to try and stay in the loop — first with Yzerman, when he was still in charge, and eventually with assistant general manager Shawn Horcoff, who was named Detroit’s interim GM on Tuesday. Seider picked their brains as he tried to separate fact from rumor on the internet.

“I think that was the hardest part for me,” he said. “That’s why maybe I stayed even home a little longer than usual, to try to escape that whole thing — because you will get confronted with it now that you’re here.”

Indeed, Seider is back now, and the fallout from the loud summer looms. Yzerman’s fate is settled, and while Larkin remains with the team, the team formally stripped him of the captaincy to begin the season.

With one franchise leader gone and another diminished, a Red Wings era — and arguably multiple eras — has ended. As the next one begins, Seider will be right at the heart of what comes next. In some ways, he will dictate it.

There is no envying Detroit’s position right now, but Seider still looks at the picture, doubts and all, and sees opportunity.

“That’s been my theme for my whole career,” Seider said. “I mean, I’ve been a bit of a surprise for a lot of people. So, that was the perfect challenge for me to kind of have them second-guessing about (me), and I feel like we could write our own story this year. … If we can come together as a team and really emphasize that togetherness, I think there will be a lot of possibilities for success in this locker room. I feel like we just can’t waste this year.”

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As Seider worked to stay focused this summer, he was fortunate to have someone with him who knew exactly what he was going through.

In North America, Seider and Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stützle play on rival teams in the Atlantic Division. They’ve faced off in some of Detroit’s fiercest games of the last four years. But back in Germany, the two work out together in the summers and see each other “basically every day.” And this year, especially, they had even more in common than usual.

The Senators’ captain, Brady Tkachuk, also requested a trade this summer, though it stayed quiet longer than Larkin’s did and was resolved much more swiftly, with Tkachuk being dealt to the Florida Panthers in late June. Still, it was a shared touchstone for the two German superstars.

“It was great, because there was no other person that could relate to the whole situation than him,” Seider said.

If the uncertainty in Detroit weighed on Seider while he was in Germany, those around him marveled at how he handled it. Seider and Stützle skate with their old German-league team, Adler Mannheim, during training camp. So Mannheim head coach and sports manager Dallas Eakins (previously the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks) had an up-close view as the summer went on.

“I’ve seen players when there’s uncertainty, there’s maybe a little chaos, like whatever it is going on, they kind of check out of it, and it kind of gives them an excuse to (say) ‘Ah, well, no idea what’s going on, I’ll start working when I have a clear vision here,’” Eakins said by phone. “And the thing I’m most impressed (by) about Mo is that even with this uncertainty and what’s going on in Detroit right now, he is unfazed. It’s like there’s nothing going on. He’s all business getting ready for his season, and I’m just amazed.”

Seider has skated with his former team in the summer for the entirety of Eakins’ tenure with Mannheim. Certainly, Eakins was supportive of the idea going in — what coach wouldn’t want stars like Seider and Stützle around their players?

But with summer skates — Mannheim begins its camp Aug. 1, six weeks before NHL camps — you also don’t know what NHL players will be looking to get out of a practice. They’re much earlier in their ramp-up process than their German counterparts and may just be looking to get their feet under them. Or at least, that’s what Eakins thought was normal.

“And you’ve got this NHL player who is an elite one — not only is he an NHL player, he’s an elite one — and he’s out there banging away as hard, and harder, than everybody around him,” Eakins said. “And that’s not the case (for everyone).”

“You don’t want to waste their time,” Seider said of the German team. “They’re trying to get ready for an important year, and they fight for contracts, fight for spots, and I feel like it’s just showing a little bit of mutual respect for both parties. Obviously, yes, I want to get better at certain things, but also I want to set an example of, ‘Hey, if I go on the ice, this is what I signed up for.’ It just puts me in better places, because you don’t have like, the summer shinny hockey skates where you kind of just (mess) around, and you do whatever you want.

“There it’s like: Your passes are sharp, you’re on time, you’re dialed in, you have battles right away, and it kind of shifted my mind right into hockey mode right away.”

That mentality is a window into how Seider became one of the NHL’s top defenders. But as he takes on more responsibility and authority in Detroit, it also illustrates the standard he’ll set for teammates.

Seider has never missed a game in five seasons in Detroit. Last year, he led the NHL with 2,104 minutes, and very few of them were light: He again took the toughest matchups on Detroit’s blue line and finished fourth in the league with 180 blocked shots. That’s not typical of a Norris Trophy candidate in the modern game, but it is for Seider.

“He’s a tremendous leader,” Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat said. “A lot of his leading is shown on the ice. Every time he steps out there, he’s giving 100 percent. And you see that in his game. He’s hitting guys, he’s blocking shots, he’s scoring goals. He’s doing it all.”

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Even though it feels like Seider just entered the NHL, he begins his sixth season with plenty to reflect on, including how fast it has all gone by.

He knows his first five years in the league caught many by surprise, even dating back to being picked No. 6 in the draft, and he’s happy with what he’s shown. And so are Red Wings fans. As Seider spoke about his big season last year and where he can go next, a van passing by the coffee shop called out of an open window: “Are you Mo Seider? Deadass?”

A few seconds later, two fans had gotten out of the van and walked over for a picture, which Seider happily obliged.

Seider’s steady rise, though, hasn’t come without frustrations.

“I think you can be very pleased and happy with the start of your career, but it should only be the start,” he said. “There’s so much more to give, there’s so much more to accomplish. But it also has that weird, like, aftertaste in your mouth that you’ve never gotten close, or like even being in the playoffs. … That’s something you obviously want to put in the past, but it’s kind of hard because you kind of get reminded (of) it every single day, because you weren’t there when all the other teams were fighting for the Stanley Cup.”

If the Red Wings, who were in first place in the division in late January, had hung onto their playoff spot last season or in 2023, it’s hard to imagine how different things might be for the franchise right now. Yzerman, in all likelihood, would still have his job. Larkin may still be the captain. But that’s not the world we live in.

The Red Wings have had many faults the last few seasons — struggles with five-on-five scoring, a lack of physicality and an inconsistent penalty kill all near the top — but their struggles to win crucial late-season games rise above all of that.

Seider knows that: “We really got stiff when it came down to crunch time, and maybe I have to take more responsibility in that — of making sure that the boys are loose, make sure they’re comfortable.”

With the captaincy now vacant, more of that type of responsibility is likely coming his way, along with all kinds of attention. It is notable, though, that when Seider, who served as an alternate captain for the first time last season, was asked what he’s learned about his own leadership style, his first thought was that “it has to be shared” — and not just by the top players, such as himself, DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond.

“I feel like sometimes the most vocal guys are the guys who aren’t, like, in the first two lines,” he said. “And that’s even good. If you do your work over and over again, I feel like you earn the right to say something, and it doesn’t matter to who it is. And I feel like that’s maybe something we can change or emphasize even more is that everybody needs to be in this conversation. … I think if we do that, we’ll kind of already (have taken) a step before the season (has) even started.”

After a summer of so much turmoil, it’s hard to know what to expect from the Red Wings this season. Even camp itself will be different, held in Detroit rather than its usual home in Traverse City, Mich., where the Red Wings had opened camp for nearly 30 years until this season. Up there, in the sleepy West Michigan resort town, the team had only each other, lending to near-automatic team building. Now, that kind of bonding will require more planning and scheduling — one more change in a year full of them.

“Obviously there’s a lot of change around us right now, and maybe we can use the change for good,” Seider said.

“Change is good sometimes. It doesn’t matter what change; it’s about what you do with the opportunity. And I feel like there is plenty of opportunity there for us.”

— The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus contributed to this report.