Chicago Blackhawks: 3 Florida Panthers free agents to steal

The Chicago Blackhawks defense looks like a unit that needs some major help.

The Chicago Blackhawks defense is something of a sour note when speaking about them. They lack depth at forward but at least they have studs like Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat to carry a good amount of the responsibility. There is no one like that anymore on the defense but a few tweaks could make it work as a solid unit. Kids like Ian Mitchell and Nicolas Beaudin have bright futures but there is still some room for improvement.

Adding someone like Brandon Montour could provide that type of improvement. 2020 was a weird year for him. He was playing for the Buffalo Sabres again after spending a good portion of his career with the Anaheim Ducks. Buffalo was one of the worst teams in the history of the league so things didn’t go well for anyone there. Luckily for Montour, he played well enough as an individual that a playoff team wanted him on an expiring deal.

In 50 games split between the Sabres and Panthers, he had seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points. He was -13 with Buffalo and +8 with the Florida Panthers which explains two things. The first is that it shows how bad the Buffalo Sabres were as a cohesive unit. It also shows that +/- is a very flawed stat because your situation can dictate it in large numbers. This is certainly a player that the Chicago Blackhawks would benefit from signing during the offseason.