Already completed at kindergarten age Moritz Seider his first steps on the ice in Erfurt, little Steppke has now become one of the most talented German ice hockey players of his generation. “I always had a talent for ice skating,” says the 19-year-old DEB-Podcast Coach the Coach, “there is nothing that has ever excited me so much. Football didn’t work like that, it didn’t have the same appeal.” (Here go to the podcast episode)
However, it took his parents a while to come to terms with the junior's preference for ice hockey. “It was a bit of a shock at first because all they knew about ice hockey was that there are often fights and the players fight each other,” remembers Seider. But over the years, the five-time senior national player did the best job of persuasion: “Now they are big ones Fans and my biggest supporters. They even get up at five in the morning to watch the games.”
Ultimately, the parents want to see how their son copes with his big North American adventure. Seider took the plunge into the Detroit Red Wings organization in the summer of 2019 after the eleven-time Stanley Cup winners had drafted him sixth in the first round. Seider had an almost fantastic first professional season. At the age of 18, he won the German championship title with the Mannheim Adler (“That was unforgettable”) and then made a much-noticed A-World Cup debut in Slovakia. “That was the personal highlight, it worked really well, we had an incredibly good team.”
Numerous experts predict that Seider will have a long NHL career, and so that he can start it ideally prepared, the Red Wings are training him in their AHL team with the Grand Rapids Griffins, where he will be used in all game situations and receive a huge amount of ice time . “I’m fully concentrating on the here and now, everything else will come then, but there’s no schedule and no pressure,” says Seider, referring to a call-up to the NHL team. At the moment he is also forced to wait because of the corona pandemic; the last time he was on the ice in a competitive game was on March 11th.
The foundation for his professional career was largely created in Mannheim, where Seider ended up with the Young Eagles at the age of 14 and his ice hockey training was further pursued. “I've always been lucky with my coaches, that started in Erfurt,” he reports. Seider also grew Deutscher Eishockey-Bund (DEB) became a permanent fixture, leading the team as captain when the U20 national team was promoted to the top group, even though he was the youngest player. He has developed his talent step by step and will continue to work just as patiently towards a successful career.
Im DEB-Podcast “Coach the Coach” spricht Moritz Seider with Karl Schwarzenbrunner, the national trainer for science and training, in detail about his career, how he deals with the high pressure of playing in North America, what experiences he has had with sports psychology, how the captain's role in the Young Talent national team shaped him and of course about the big highlights of his career so far.
Here go to the podcast episode with Moritz Seider