Yeah that take was always a joke and basically a telltale sign of who had never really seen him play and was relying on boxscore watching to form their opinion. I mean you did not even have to watch any DEL games to see that he had plenty of offensive upside. Just watching what he did at the World Cup against men should have given everyone a clue that there certainly was some offensive upside there to say the least. People just underrated how tough it is to produce in the lowly regarded DEL for a 17 year old Dman.
I think he will give Byram a serious run for his money down the line for best D and has a good chance of being better than him.
The only big worry I have always had with Seider is injuries. He has gotten injured a lot over the short time I have followed his career and that is why I was a bit hesitant about him getting picked as high even though I absolutely love his game. If he can overcome these issues due to his body developing and getting stronger that would be amazing.
Hope he can stay healthy. If he does I think people will go from laughing at Detroit for "reaching" on him to praise them and ask maybe even a couple of teams in front of them why they did not pick him (hope Byram does well enough for the Avs not to be one of them).
Even if Seider turns out better than Byram long-term (and it's way too early to speculate that hypothetical in my opinion, especially with BB not playing pro hockey yet), he was consistently regarded as the best defenseman of the draft and a top 5 pick, so Colorado shouldn't be kicking themselves for taking the obvious choice at all this early.
I like both of them as prospects a lot, I do think Byram ultimately has an offensive game that Seider will never have. He's much better at quarterbacking a power play and has a better and more accurate shot, where Seider is more well rounded for playing tough minutes and (right now) has just more refined defensive game and awareness. That said, even with his offensive success in the AHL, I'm not convinced Seider will be all that good offensively in the NHL, (like Parayko) even in 3-4 years, but will make up for it by being a defenseman who can play up to 25 minutes a night, play against and neutralize the toughest quality of competition and help dictate possession and drive play for the forwards.
Seider has yet to be injured this season, which is a good sign. He's taken some pretty big hits from players in the AHL and has been targeted at occasions (seems to be common for young players in the AHL from what I've seen), but he's stood his ground and has defended himself pretty well enough to not be a target like Zadina often was last season.
