The massive questions headed into the offseason concerning Moritz Seider have been how a lot, and how lengthy.
The Detroit Red Wings lastly answered these questions Thursday, with a seven-year deal price $8.55 million per yr. Seider's three-year entry-level contract had an annual wage cap hit of $863,334.
While it took longer than anybody would have appreciated – coaching camp started with gamers reporting to Traverse City on Sept. 18 – to return to an settlement, the underside line is that basic supervisor Steve Yzerman has locked up the companies of a 23-year-old Calder Trophy winner who in three years has cemented himself as a pillar of the rebuild. Seider is the crew's workhorse, taking part in on the highest protection pairing the place he's tasked with containing opposing superstars, in addition to seeing time each operating a energy play and manning a penalty kill.
NEW FACES ON DEFENSE: How Erik Gustafsson sees himself serving to Red Wings: ‘Feel very assured'
Seider was the primary participant drafted by Yzerman since returning to Detroit in April 2019, chosen at sixth total in 2019 on the power of his standout performances for Adler Mannheim in his native Germany's prime hockey league.
Seider made a right away affect on the Wings when he arrived in Detroit for the 2021-22 season, posting 42 factors in 82 video games and ending by taking residence prime honors because the NHL's rookie of the yr. By then he already had performed a season within the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins (2019-20). Because of the pandemic, he spent 2020-21 within the Swedish Hockey League, the place he was a league and crew standout with Rögle BK.
Seider posted one other 42-point season in 2022-23. He upped that to 50 factors this previous season; in every of his three seasons, he is averaged round 23 minutes per sport.
Seider was a restricted free agent with out arbitration rights. That the deal took this lengthy to shut displays Yzerman juggling the price range as he continues to attempt to reshape the Wings into a crew able to reaching the playoffs on a common foundation once more. The much less cash Yzerman may persuade Seider's camp to take, the extra there's to spend on upgrades elsewhere.
The first most deal inked by Yzerman throughout his tenure answerable for the Wings was Dylan Larkin's $69.6 million extension on March 1, 2023.
Contact Helene St. James at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read extra on the Detroit Red Wings and join our Red Wings newsletter. Her newest e-book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is on the market from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies obtainable by way of her e-mail.
This article initially appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings, Moritz Seider agree to 7-year contract extension