Late last night it was reported, and later confirmed, that the Blackhawks had traded the very conditional pick that Uncle Dale sent them for Kopecky to Buffalo, for the rights to unrestricted free agent defenseman Steve Montador. This really shouldn't be a huge surprise, as the Hawks were sniffing his door at the trade deadline last year, ahead of the Stromboli trade. If the Hawks can sign him in the next 24 hours, and they should, the trade was really Kopecky for Montador, which is certainly fair. This just about squashes all speculation that Stan will go out and get another puck moving defenseman for the powerplay, and seems to be happy with Stromboli and Three Times-a-Leddy as the quarterbacks for Quenneville's powerplay. I can't say I'M as comfortable with that, but so be it. When Stanimal gives you grapes, make wine; very strong wine.
Montador is 31, and was on the books for $1.5 million last year. He's listed at 6'0" and 211 lbs, which is slightly on the short side, but the guy is solid. He's been a solid 25 point guy, for his career, and reportedly has a big shot to go with some big hits. Judging by his fight videos he has excellent hair, too. His downfall reportedly is that he's not a great puck carrier, and will turn it over. Hopefully he'll leave that part up to either Stromboli or Leddy. I would assume that he will get around $2 million a year, which is more than fair. On a side note, EVERY fight video I've found of Montador, he's getting his ass handed to him. Might want to work on that, Stev-o.
This should also, thankfully, quiet the Brent Sopel talk, unless he's coming here to sit and watch from the press box for somewhere in the area of 40 games. This all suits me fine, because Montador is younger, faster, and just overall more talented.