Vancouver Canucks: Three NHL prospects if they pick 11 to 20th: Part 2

Moritz Seider, Right Defenceman

6″4′, 200lbs, Adler Mannheim (DEL)

HockeyProspects.com #12

Future Considerations #17

Corey Pronman of TheAthletic.com #24

If Cory Hergott has dubbed Zack MacEwen “The Big Fella”, Moritz Seider should be dubbed “The Bigger Fella”, he has been rising in a lot of draft boards ever since getting more minutes with Adler Mannheim of the DEL in Germany’s best professional hockey league. Seider’s raised minutes in this men’s league have given him an opportunity to show more of his game, getting some time on both the power play and the penalty kill.

Though the size is the first thing that sticks out and most defencemen that are 6-foot-4, 200 pounds are primarily defensive minded defencemen, Seider seems to have an offensive upside. He has been playing his whole life in Germany which does inflate his youth stats, but the fact that he was playing on a U-16 team at the age of 12 does show that he was a standout ever since he was very young.

His low numbers in the DEL do not tell much of the story of how he plays his game, right now he only has one goal and three assists in 25 games. The one goal was on a two on one where Seider jumped into the rush and was streaking in on the left side of the two on one, received the pass and one-timed it past the goaltender.

His biggest strength to no surprise is his physical ability, he does not hesitate to body up any of the men in this professional league. Watching some tape on Seider there was multiple times where he would just ride the offensive player into the corner while setting himself up to shut the door completely and many times dropping the opposing forward.

His skating is smooth for such a big guy and I think that’s a thing that many of the scouts pointed out was one of his average ratings, but for me watching a guy this big move around that fluently was something that caught my eye. His first pass out of the zone is quick and very strong, he also likes to carry the puck as well, this was very apparent at the 2019 division two World Junior championships.

Seider was the captain of team Germany’s U-20 team as a 17-year-old. Captaining a team while being two years younger than some teammates shows that not only his game dominates at that level, but also that he is a leader in the room. He has seven points in five games and led Germany to the championship which will promote them to the first division. Next year he will likely captain team Germany again at the World Junior Championships but this time in the first division where he could take on the likes of Finland, Sweden, USA, Russia and Canada.

Those games next year will be a real showcase for Seider and I think if Germany would have been competing in this years (Div-1) World Juniors that Seider would have been a lot more highly regarded as a top defensive prospect.

Of the few problems I had with Seider’s game was his shot, it’s pretty strong but he isn’t great at unleashing a one timer yet, his shot does miss quite often as well and there was no real threat when he was shooting a wrist shot. Even though since joining the professional men’s league his offensive production has gone away, he still jumps into a lot of odd man rushes and looks to be effective when given the opportunity.

Seider will likely be a defensive minded player at the next level, his best attributes are his size, and ability to cover so much area with his long stick and lengthy reach. I think Seider would be a player that we could see in the NHL as soon as the 2020-21 season due to the fact that he is already playing against professionals in the DEL and he will be an absolute stud in the next (possibly two) World Junior Championships.

If the Canucks draft Seider they will be thinking of a big right-handed defenceman who could likely play with Olli Juolevi down the road in a top four group that would be very smart and strong on the back-end. His ability to think quickly and make a smart first pass could have a chance of being a good match for Quinn Hughes if he could keep up with the magic that Hughes is going to bring to the team.

His game reminds me very much of Tyler Myers of the Winnipeg Jets, a big guy who can play tough minutes and has an offensive touch that can surprise the opposing team. I like the idea of Seider in a Canucks uniform, imagine a third pairing of Tryamkin and Seider in a playoff run, just punishing opponents with their big bodies.

Ouuuhhhh…

**Sends Shivers Down my Spine**