Steve Montador is a clear No. 6 on the Panthers’ depth chart of defensemen and there’s no certainty he’s got the kind of future in Florida that teammates like Jay Bouwmeester, Mike Van Ryn and Branislav Mezei do. But say this for Montador: More than any other Panther this season, he’s stepped up for his teammates.

It happened again Wednesday night against Philadelphia, when the Flyers’ 6-foot-2, 225-pound Ben Eager blasted smallish forward Ville Peltonen into the corner to the left of the Florida net. Montador said he hoped for a whistle on the hit, but when none was forthcoming he took matters into his own hands and went after Eager.

Eager didn’t drop the gloves, so Montador wound up with 17 minutes of penalties: two for instigating, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct. That ended Montador’s night, but he had no regrets.

“He was head-hunting and I didn’t like that,” he said. “He got lucky because he didn’t get a minor, and did the right thing by not dropping his gloves. We were chirping at each other a little bit throughout the game and there wasn’t any animosity, but I was prepared for him to do something like that and sure enough he did. I didn’t like it and decided to do something about it.”

Montador fought New Jersey’s Cam Janssen twice in as many meetings this season after hard hits and has had six fights altogether, more than other player.

“It’s great to see what he’s done,” Peltonen said. “Monty has been the ultimate team guy for us all year, and it’s always a good feeling to know someone is behind you. Hats off to him for doing it.”