The long and winding road that is the career of former 50-goal scorer Jonathan Cheechoo takes another turn today. The Dallas Stars announced that Cheechoo will get a tryout with the team during training camp. Cheechoo, who won the Rocket Richard Trophy in 2005-2006 with the Sharks after scoring 56 goals has seen his career fall on hard times. Since then, he’s gone from being a Sharks prime time player, to being sent to Ottawa in the Dany Heatley trade to being sent to their farm team in Binghamton.
Since that 56-goal season, Cheechoo’s numbers have gone downhill and fast. In 2006-2007 he scored 37 goals, the season after that he had 23. In 2008-2009 he had 12 goals and last year he had five goals in 61 games for the Senators. In 21 games for the Binghamton Senators of the AHL he had eight goals but it’s clear there’s something gone wrong here. If the Stars can reignite his game, they’ll be getting a great goal scorer at a bargain-basement price. If he doesn’t shake it loose, he’ll be spending his time in the AHL with the Texas Stars.