It took a while, but after negotiations that stretched into the first day of training camp, the Red Wings finally secured their franchise defenseman with a new contract. Detroit signed 23-year-old RHD Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract extension carrying an average annual value of $8.55 million, the team announced Thursday.
The deal will take Seider to age 30 and gives the Red Wings a fundamental piece of their blue line for the foreseeable future.
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Here’s what you need to know.
What Seider means to the Red Wings
He is their clear number 1 defenseman, a pillar of the team that I expect will wear a letter one day – and maybe soon. He has yet to miss a single game in his three-year NHL career, making him the prototypical workhorse defenseman.
Last season, he took the hardest minutes of any NHL blueliner, according to data from The Athletics‘s Dom Luszczyszyn, and while he had some understandable ups and downs in those minutes, it speaks to Detroit’s faith in him to accept such a role at such a young age. He also maintained a relatively high offensive floor with back-to-back 42-point seasons — despite decreased power-play time last season with Shayne Gostisbehere in town.
Simply put, Seider is Detroit’s present and future on the blue line. He will be one of the faces of the team for years to come.
Why a long-term deal makes sense for Detroit
Locking Seider up long-term gives the Red Wings certainty about what he will cost on their cap for the foreseeable future. This deal follows recent long-term extensions for fellow top young blueliners Brock Faber (eight years at $8.5 million per year), Owen Power (seven years at $8.35 million per year) and Jake Sanderson (eight years at $8.05 million per year), and Seider’s track record so far exceeds all three of those players.
IT’S MO CITY, BABY 🙌
The #RedWings signed Moritz Seider to a seven-year contract with an AAV of $8,550,000. pic.twitter.com/WuZRSGRC3z
– Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 19, 2024
Detroit probably would have liked to get an eighth year here, but after Faber’s contract became comparable earlier this summer, the price of a max-term extension may have been a bit too high for the Red Wings — though it’s hard to know exactly what. Seider and his representation would like that kind of expression.
The deal will expire at the same time as Dylan Larkin’s eight-year extension, which was signed in 2023, and one year before Lucas Raymond’s new extension.
On the 8.55 million USD AAV
Seider’s deal eats up nearly all of Detroit’s remaining cap space, with only about $200,000 remaining for 2024-25. But coming in under Larkin’s $8.7 million AAV, the Red Wings would appear to have functionally created an internal cap ceiling in the short term.
That can always change over time, especially as the NHL salary cap continues to rise. But at least for the next few years, it will take a high bar for a Red Wings defenseman to ask for more money than Seider, or a forward to seek more than Larkin.
How this deal can deliver value for Detroit
It should age into good value organically, with a growing cap, which should steadily drive up the prices for big-minute defensemen in the coming years. To get the most of it, though, the Red Wings will want Seider to continue to improve on the path he’s already on: being a two-way horse they rely on to tilt the ice in their favor.
In many ways, Detroit’s Seider’s top question will likely always be those tough matchups and shutting down top opponents. It is hard work, and one he will have to continue to master, but to thrive in it is well within his ability.
When teams sign defensemen for this kind of expression and money, however, they’re also hoping to get significant offense out of the deal. And while Seider’s half-point-per-game output the last two years is strong for his role, in a perfect world Detroit would probably like to see him return to, or above, the 50-point output he had as a rookie. the life of this agreement. More top power play would help that pursuit, and that’s possible this season with Gostisbehere now out of the picture.
(Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
