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Former NHL player Steve Montador found dead at home

By Phil Watson

Former NHL defensive Steve Montador was found dead Sunday at his Ontario home. He was 35. (Photo by Grace Wiley/This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)
Former NHL defensive Steve Montador was found dead Sunday at his Ontario home. He was 35. (Photo by Grace Wiley/This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.) /
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Former NHL defenseman Steve Montador was found dead inside his home in Mississauga, Ontario, according to a report.

Steve Montador, who played parts of 10 seasons with six NHL teams, was found dead in his home in Mississauga, Ontario, according to a report.

The Mississauga News reported that Montador was found inside his home early Sunday morning. According to police, a female friend woke up at 2 a.m. and found Montador’s body. Police said the death is being treated as a sudden death investigation; foul play is not suspected.

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Montador was 35.

Born Dec. 21, 1979, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Montador made it to the NHL as an undrafted player, signed as a free agent by the Calgary Flames in April 2000 after scoring 38 goals and 174 points in 251 games in the Junior A Ontario Hockey League.

He made his NHL debut on Nov. 23, 2011, for the Flames and scored four goals and nine points with 201 minutes in penalties in 94 games for Calgary.

He was traded to the Florida Panthers in December 2005 and in parts of three seasons logged 10 goals, 38 points with 260 penalty minutes in 196 games.

He signed a free-agent deal with the Anaheim Ducks in July 2008 and played 65 games with four goals, 20 assists and 125 PIM before he was dealt to the Boston Bruins in March. He notched an assist and had 18 penalty minutes in 13 games.

In July 2009, he was signed by the Buffalo Sabres and had 10 goals and 49 points with 158 PIM in 151 games before he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in June 2011.

He made 52 appearances with Chicago before he was sidelined with a head injury in late March.

Montador never played in the NHL again, making 14 appearances with the American Hockey League’s Rockford IceHogs in 2012-13 before signing a free agent deal with Zagreb in the Kontinental Hockey League in August 2013.

Montador played in only 11 games for Zagreb before returning home.

He talked in March 2013 about his long recovery from the concussion he sustained.

“I know people talk about sports being a microcosm for life and it’s very true that way,” Montador told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I can see why people have a hard time with … being taken away from something they love to do.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety and depression. I’ve had a lot of help to work through that and I feel like I’ve taken the right steps.”

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