Current members of the Calgary Flames organization are mourning the loss of former friend and teammate, Steve Montador.

The 35-year-old former NHL defenseman was located unconscious in his Mississauga, Ontario home on Sunday morning and later pronounced dead.

Montador began his NHL career with the Flames in 2001-2002 after signing as an undrafted free agent. The defenceman played four seasons with Calgary, including the Flames 2004 playoff run which ended with a disappointing loss to Tampa Bay in the Stanley Cup Finals.  

Several of his former teammates were saddened to hear of Montador’s untimely death.

“I was shocked,” said Flames Assistant Coach Martin Gelinas, who played alongside Montador in Calgary and Florida. “Everybody goes through dips and so on and everybody deals with it differently.”

“He was a friend, he was a family member. He was someone that I cared about. For me, it’s a sad day today.”

Gelinas says Montador lived with the Gelinas family for more than six months during their time with the Florida Panthers.

“He’s a guy that came from nowhere, had to battle for everything he got and made a name for himself, and his teammates, everybody loved him.”

“No one’s got a bad thing to say about Steve. He was a fun guy to be around.”

Montador suffered numerous concussions during his playing career and, in a 2013 interview, he discussed his ongoing battle with depression.

“Obviously he had some demons that he had to deal with,” said Gelinas. “It’s a very sad, very sad day.”

Flames captain Mark Giordano crossed paths with Montador during the Flames training camp in 2005. Gio remembers the elder Montador going out of his way to help the rookies and says the defenseman’s blue collar style of play earned praise.

“He was really well respected around the league,” said Giordano. “He was a hardnosed player, played the game the right way and he definitely made a great career for himself.”

Flames forward Brandon Bollig was a teammate of Montador for parts of two seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks and their AHL affiliate in Rockford, Illinois.

“I think there’s a fair amount of guys here that know him and know how good of a guy he was and an even better teammate,” said Bollig. “He’s one of my favourite people to just sit around and talk to. The guy was passionate. He was very intelligent.”

“He’s one of those guys that definitely earned it, I don’t think anything was given to him. He earned everything he got and that’s what made him successful and that’s why he stuck around for as long as he did.”