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Mo Seider is getting good ice time at the IIHF Worlds Championship. He’s also showing a bit of his personality on and off the ice. I’m trying to remember the last defenseman that had this sort of presence on the ice for Detroit. I landed on Jiri Fischer. Losing Jiri to the sport at far too young an age was tough. The fact that he’s with the organization and helping build this team is a near miracle. Jiri is the reason that heart defibrillators are standard in arena medical equipment.
I had an opportunity to speak with Jiri in 2009 at the Red Wings training camp in Traverse City. He had to fight to get a new “normal” after his cardiac scare. What came from all of that was the biggest boost to player development the organization had seen in a long time. Fischer took the wheel and made swift changes. At training camp a year or two later, he saw someone setting up a bagel table for the players. He had them shut it down and replace it with a fruit and whole grain bread table. Huge shifts in dietary training (all the prospects go to cooking and nutrition classes) came next. Fischer’s own journey to get incredibly healthy impacted how the organization guides players.
Beyond that, Jiri (and others more and more including Cleary and Horcoff) took prospect follows up to a new level. All through the season, wherever the “kids” are playing, they get phone calls and check ins. The players talk to all the coaches for updates, and are constantly getting and giving feedback. Whether the players are ever signed or brought into the organization, they get to benefit from an intense look at what it means to try and become and remain a pro.
The speech at prospects camp is the first hit of reality. “If you want a job, you need to take it from someone else. If you want to keep your job, you need to be better than the person who wants to take it from you”. When Fischer crossed over to the pros, he made his presence known to the brass. Jiri bounced back and forth his first 2 years (to the Cincinnati Might Ducks) playing 52 and 55 games in the NHL and 7 and 18 games in the AHL. The third year he locked in.
He famously did a truck commercial with Chris Pronger, and was known already for being a pretty tough character. Seider is close to the same height, (right instead of left shot) and just reminds me more and more of the big Czech D man. When I see him bury an opponent and then make you laugh off ice, it’s a nice bit of a return of what Detroit lost so many years ago.
Fischer, Cleary, Horcoff, and Draper all play important roles for the organization. They’re also a group of guys that can bury you at the gym. One of the Detroit area fitness gurus swears that Draper can run his gauntlet three times straight without any trouble. When you get to see Fischer on the ice, he still looks fantastic out there. Cleary and Horcoff both extended their careers by training insanely hard. (Chelios was the craziest of the bunch, riding a bike in the sauna to get a good sweat).
Seider has the appropriate “chip” on his shoulder that makes him go out and want to play hard. He’s admitted that people have told him he was picked “way too high”. Good Lord the trolls never quit. He’s channeling it all and working it out. I have a feeling one of the guys who called him “overrated” may have been on the receiving end of one of his bigger hits.
Please don’t mistake the comparison here. I’m not saying that Seider is the “end all, be all” because we haven’t seen him play in the NHL yet. But, his response to every challenge put before him has been to step up and achieve or overachieve. So many prospects really struggle with the “next” expectations. He’s climbing the mountain and not shying away from any criticism or critique. There’s a lot of mental toughness behind the bow tie.
What do you think? Do you see any of Fischer in Seider? How do you project his minutes heading into his first NHL season? Do you think he’ll continue to step up, or will he need some time in Grand Rapids? I have to imagine he’ll need to be at around the 18 minute mark to keep him in the “bigs”. Less than than and they may want him getting 23 minutes in GR. Let me know in the comments.
Check out some of my previous blogs:
Mo Seider is getting good ice time at the IIHF Worlds Championship.
There may be some blockbuster deals coming.
Yzerman signs Wyatt Newpower
Carly has coffee with Joe Veleno 
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