I really feel bad for Cheechoo. He has such a reputation of living off of Thornton and being a fluke, when in reality it was injuries that killed his career.
And to chime in on the Cheechoo thing; the guy had an amazing scoring touch. Like many have already said, he was a horrible skater and injuries only made him worse.
I remember reading about how when the Sharks got Joe Thornton they held a competition in practice to see who could actually onetime Joe's passes. Cheechoo was one of 2-3 people who could consistently keep up with them and get effective shots off.
Edit: Not sure why I thought his name was Chris
Last edited by Wedontneedroads: 03-09-2012 at 05:46 PM.
I remember reading about how when the Sharks got Joe Thornton they held a competition in practice to see who could actually onetime Joe's passes. Cheechoo was one of 2-3 people who could consistently keep up with them and get effective shots off.
Huh? The guy scored 421 points in 674 games. He had one 60 point season and two 55 point seasons, with 4 other seasons scoring in the 40's.
The peak of his career was during his stint with the Oilers where he had 28 and 25 goal seasons. After that, his career literally dropped of the cliff. Injuries and a couple of seasons with 11 and 5 goals and then the lock-out year nearly ended his NHL career. Few teams were willing to offer him a contract. He signed with the Canucks, was put on a line with the Sedins and wound up with his highest goals scored. He wanted a big raise, no one would give it to him. Finally signed with Columbus and only scored 11 goals the next season and was out of the league after that.
Wasn't Kevin Stevens career killed by his own coke addiction?
bounced his face off the ice in the 93 playoffs. His points took a slight hit the following season, but you could tell the way he played that he wasn't the same player.
Stevens didn't get caught up in coke (at least publicly) until early 2000.
Not as big as some others, but Petr Prucha's rookie year he had 30 goals. Had 22 goals the season after that then never had above 10 and is now in the AHL.
Selanne's year 1992-1993. Scored 76 goals when next best year he scored only 52. And it was his rookie year so it makes it even more fluke.
he did have a few injuries that hampered him year two and year three....plus they traded away Phil Housely(great PMD) in Selanne's 2nd or third year?????
