CHICAGO (AP)—The Chicago Blackhawks have acquired the rights to defenseman Steve Montador(notes) from the Buffalo Sabres for a seventh-round pick in either the 2012 or 2013 draft.

The deal was announced Wednesday night.

The 31-year-old Montador is set to become an unrestricted free agent Friday. Until then, Chicago has exclusive negotiating rights.

Montador had a career-high 21 assists and 26 points and led the Sabres with a career-best plus-16 rating in 73 games last season.

A Vancouver native, Montador has 28 goals, 89 assists and 762 penalty minutes over parts of nine seasons with the Calgary Flames (2001-06), Florida Panthers (2005-08), Anaheim Ducks (2008-09), Boston Bruins (2009) and Sabres (2009-11).

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They could've done better at the D position. Probably will play on the 3rd line.

Sounds like the signing is done. 4 yrs. 11 mil is the initial report. That's a 2.75 mil cap hit.

What do you think of the signing? I don't know nearly enough to form an opinion.

I'm ok with him. He had a +16 rating with Buffalo last season.

Here's a short article that tells you what the Hawks see in him.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/6258403-419/blackhawks-sign-steve-montador-to-fill-defensive-void.html

Sounds like a good deal to me.

So much for one of my D's. Christian Ehrhoff signed a 10 year/$40 million deal with Buffalo.

Yeah, I was going to mention that Buffalo aquired his rights to basically replace Montador. Thanks for the news on his signing. I'll look forward to seeing you join this thread during games next season.

Here's the list of the Hawk's current depth chart. In (....) is what I would like the depth chart to look like with some FA additions. The pickups would probably eat the rest of the salary cap room the Hawks have.

1st Line
LW - Sharp (Sharp)
C - Toews (Toews)
RW - Kane (Kane)
D - Keith (Keith)
D - Seabrook (Seabrook)

2nd Line
LW - Stalberg (Simon Gagne - FA)
C - Bolland (Bolland)
RW - Hossa (Hossa)
D - Leddy (Jonathan Ericsson - FA)
D- Hjalmarsson (Hjalmarsson)

3rd Line
LW - Bickell (Stalberg)
C - Johnson (Brooks Laich - FA)
RW - Frolik (Frolik)
D - Campoli (Leddy)
D - Montador (Montador)

4th Line
LW - Olesz (Bickell)
C - Dowell (Dowell)
RW - Scott (Scott)

Bench
W - Pisani (Olesz)
D - Hendry (Campoli)

Goalies
G - Crawford (Crawford)
G - None (Ray Emery or Alex Auld - FA)

They definitely won't spend all of their cap room. Stan Bowman has made it clear he's excited to have flexibility during the season.

Yeah I know. I could see them add one of the goalies, a guy like Ericsson & a backup center. Then they have to have some cash for Sharp.

By Jesse Rogers
ESPNChicago.com

Archive The Chicago Blackhawks made a splash on the first day of free agency, signing four players, while living up to offseason promises of getting bigger and finding more grit.

In the process the Hawks got older as well.

Wingers Jamal Mayers, 36, and Andrew Brunette, 37, along with defenseman Sean O'Donnell, 39, and center Brett McLean, 32, all agreed to one year deals Friday.

Mayers and O'Donnell, in particular, provide size and toughness the Hawks admit they were lacking last season after breaking up their championship roster in a salary cap purge last summer. Mayers has been involved in 106 career fights while O'Donnell provides the size (6-foot-3, 234 pounds) the Hawks have been missing on the blue line.

Brunette is a consistent scorer who can play on any of the top three lines. He's scored between 15 and 27 goals in each of the last 11 seasons. He's durable, having played in 80 games or more in nine consecutive seasons. O'Donnell has missed just 12 games since the 2005-06 season.

McLean is a former Hawk (2002-04) who played the last two seasons in the Swiss League. He provides depth at the center position but isn't considered a front-line player.

Adding to the attempt to get tougher, the Hawks signed defenseman Steve Montador to a four-year deal earlier in the week.

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I could live with Brunette for a year I guess but I would rather have gone with younger players.

Sounds like the Hawks FO was bussssssssssyyyy today

I hear what you're saying but, at least they are only 1 yr deals. Sounds like they are looking for what may have been missing for a serious cup run. I hope they have made the right moves.

Dale Tallon is recruiting all the Hawks he can. He's made a trade for Kris Versteeg. I'd like to have had Versteeg back.

5.5 mil per season over 6 seasons for James Wisniewski? Really? That's a pretty big cap hit.

I guess I should mention for Columbus

Is Tallon only going after ex-hawks? I miss Versteeg though.

Na, he seems to be going after everyone. They needed to spend a bunch of money just to get to the salary cap floor. They were way below the minimum.

The Hawks have signed Daniel Carcillo to a one yr deal. This signing does nothing for me. He had 6 lousy points in 57 games last year to go with 127 penalty minutes. We don't need a guy to take penalties.

Ick. Carcillo is a real punk. I really like the Montador and Brunette signings though.

That's the two I like as well. Time will tell on the other guys.

I actually liked the Carcillo pickup. We need an enforcer/spark plug guy on this team. I just wished we would've grabbed Jonathan Ericsson. He would've been another decent, young and cheap pickup for D.

How much money does the Hawks have now from the $14 million after these signings? They still need a backup goalie.