Although General Manager Doug Wilson has said several times that this team was built over summer, and that he isn't exactly inclined to be making any trades this deadline, there have been whispers about a trade of the 2006 Rocket Richard trophy winner Jonathan Cheechoo. Since winning the award for most goals scored in a regular season (56 in 82 games played), Cheechoo has scored 69 goals in 194 games coming into Tuesday's game against the Dallas Stars. His 2008 campaign was shortened with injury, and since the new coach Todd McLellon came in, Devin Setoguchi took his power-play/first line right wing role and Cheechoo has been working as a grinder on the third line for all of this season.
Reports say that the Sharks are interested in defenseman Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks and winger Ryan Smyth of the Colorado Avalanche, but both have big salaries that would put San Jose, who is already near the cap, over it.
Before anyone goes in over their head, they should consider the role Cheechoo has played for this revitalized San Jose team. Around this time last year, fans were going as far as saying the Sharks were going to trade their captain Patrick Marleau the coming off-season, especially because he, for most of the season, had the league's worst +/- rating. But think about where Ron Wilson put Marleau last year. The captain was centering the second and third line, while being a left winger on the first power play line. So for the most part, Marleau had the services of Bill Guerin, a struggling Steve Bernier, and a rookie Devin Setoguchi. Ryane Clowe probably would've worked with Marleau as well, but he was out for most of the season with an injury. And Marleau did contribute to the power play, putting up 7 power play goals and 19 assists, second to Joe Thorton (and being on the ice when a power play goal is scored doesn't add to your +/- rating).
Cheechoo, in a sense, can be compared with Marleau's struggles last year, and he hasn't even had it as bad as the captain. In 49 games played this year, the Cheechoo Train has put up 9 goals and 21 points being a right winger on the third line with Mike Grier and Jeremy Roenick or Marcel Goc centering. Cheechoo has 6 power play points (4 goals), and has an even +/- rating. No offense to the Sharks's grinders, but when you look at names like Grier, Roenick, and Goc, only Roenick comes at you as a real points scorer, and that was only about 10 years ago when he was in his prime. When Cheechoo had 56 goals in 2006 and 37 goals in 2007, he had the services of Joe Thorton. And if you don't believe Thorton can change one player by himself, look at Patrick Marleau this year.
It's not like Cheechoo has just gone into the shadows of the San Jose bench. If you watch the full 60 minutes of each game (like I try to do), you'll see that Cheechoo has fully accepted his grinder role while not forgetting the fact that he has a monster of a slap shot. The guy works hard along the boards, hustles, keeps pucks alive, and whenever he has a clear lane towards the net, he winds up and lets a blast go (he recently scored twice from outside the faceoff circle by doing that). Everyone may only look at the goals scored category in judging Cheechoo, but the fact is that under the McLellon regime, his role has changed, and Cheech is playing well in that role. Granted, teams may still look at Cheechoo as a scorer and he could bring in some other big names to the San Jose franchise (although I'm not sure how fans will react to Chris Pronger coming to town), but if Cheechoo was going to be traded, I'm sure Doug Wilson is looking more at who he can get in return rather than Cheechoo's performance this year. Recently, McLellon has made up some hybrid power play lines with Cheechoo involved, and there has been some shifts with the Moose Factory native reunited with Joe Thorton. In fact, as of 2:10pm on March 3rd, Jonathan Cheechoo's name is on the first line with Thorton and Marleau on San Jose's depth chart according to Yahoo!. We'll see how much this actually means in their game against Dallas tonight, and we'll see tomorrow if Cheech is going to be a Shark for the rest of this year, at least until summer. If I was the GM, I wouldn't move him.
Side note: on the topic of trade deadlines, the thought (that is slowly becoming a reality) of Pronger and Zdeno Chara on the Boston Bruins's blue line is one of the scariest thoughts for an NHL player, fan, and opposing coach. The biggest defenseman paired with the second or third biggest in the league, and both have monster shots from the point and use their freakish heights (which, proportionally, increases their wingspan) for freakish poke checks with their sticks. Talk about a defensive pair built around stopping guys like Thorton and Alexander Ovechkin.
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