Detroit’s Moritz Seider added another piece of hardware Thursday, earning The Hockey News Rod Langway Award as the NHL’s best defensive defenseman for 2025-26.
The award is part of the annual set of honors handed out by The Hockey News, with staff writers and contributors voting on the publication’s awards. Seider finished ahead of a strong field, with Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin taking runner-up, Dallas defensemen Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen placing third and fourth, and Minnesota’s Jonas Brodin coming in fifth.
Detroit coach Todd McLellan had a vivid way of describing what Seider brings every night.
“He’s like a diesel engine,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “They just keep running and running.
Yet he’s a greyhound. He can go and it doesn’t faze him.
I can’t remember seeing him bent over in a shift where the legs are just so stiff and he can’t move. I can’t remember seeing that.
And he’s been caught out there a few times for lengthy ones. So if I was picking somebody on our team that would run marathons or ultra marathons, it would be him.
Incredible athlete.”
Seider’s case is built on more than just reputation. He played a responsible, physical game and still managed to produce 60 points for the first time in his career. He has also never missed a game in his career, a durability streak that only adds to his value.
There’s also a larger layer to the recognition. The Langway Award carries weight because it speaks to a long-running debate around how defensemen are judged. For years, there’s been criticism that Norris Trophy voting has leaned too heavily toward offense, even though the award is supposed to honor the league’s top blueliner overall.
That debate is exactly why some around the game have pushed for separate awards - one for the offensive star and one for the defensive specialist. Langway’s name keeps coming up in those conversations because he’s widely viewed as the last pure defensive defenseman to win the Norris. He captured back-to-back Norris Trophies in 1982-83 and 1983-84 despite only modest offensive production.
Langway’s own reputation was built on rugged, no-nonsense defending, the kind that helped turn the Capitals from an expansion team into a contender.
Since then, point totals have often driven the Norris conversation, though players such as Zdeno Chara, Drew Doughty and Nick Lidstrom were celebrated for excelling at both ends of the ice.
For Detroit, Seider has become the kind of player the team leans on every night. He improved in each of his NHL seasons, and his one-on-one defending and durability are central to the Red Wings’ competitiveness.
The club simply isn’t as effective when he’s not out there. This season, Seider finished at plus-15 on a team that had trouble scoring five-on-five goals.
He was also identified as a serious player and a natural leader, and the source notes he is likely to succeed Dylan Larkin as captain when he is traded.
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