Former Blackhawk Steve Montador Heads to KHL

The veteran defenseman was bought out by the Hawks earlier this summer

The Chicago Blackhawks may still owe defenseman Steve Montador $4.1 million over the next three years, but at least for this year, they won’t be giving him that money to pay for another NHL team.

That’s because Montador has reportedly agreed to a 1-year deal to play with Medvescak Zagreb, a Croatian team in the Kontinental Hockey League. Montador played 14 games with the Rockford IceHogs during the 2013 season as he tried to make a comeback from a concussion he sustained during the 2011-12 campaign.

Montador, who received a salary cap compliance buyout from the Blackhawks earlier in the summer, isn’t the first Hawks player to head overseas this offseason. Defenseman Shawn Lalonde, who was a third round draft pick of the Hawks in the 2008 Entry Draft and had been playing for the Icehogs, signed a contract with Eisbaren Berlin of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in late July.

During his brief stint with the Hawks, Montador had five goals and nine assists in 52 games before he was felled by a concussion on March 27th, 2012. In 571 career NHL games, with six different teams, Montador had 33 goals and 98 assists, to go along with 807 penalty minutes.

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