All aboard the Jonathan Cheechoo train; next stop, St. Louis

The headline on TrueHockey.com, which broke the news of Jonathan Cheechoo signing with the St. Louis Blues: "Blues Sign Former 50 Goal Scorer."

Which is a bit like using "From The Director of 'The Sixth Sense'" on the poster for a new M. Night Shyamalan movie: It ignores "The Village," "Lady In The Water," "The Last Airbender" and that movie where the wind tried to kill Marky Mark.

Cheechoo scored 56 goals in 2005-06 with the San Jose Sharks and followed it with 37 more in 2006-07. But between the Sharks and the Ottawa Senators from 2008-10, he had 17 goals in 127 games.

The Senators bought him out last summer after acquiring him in the Dany Heatley trade. He was invited to the Dallas Stars training camp and couldn't latch on. He signed a professional tryout contract with the Worcester Sharks of the AHL last October and scored 18 goals in 55 games in the AHL, making the minor league's all-star game.

Now, he's a St. Louis Blues project, most likely tabbed for Peoria to start. From Andy Strickland of TrueHockey.com:

Cheechoo gives the Blues some added offensive depth with two-way contracts�along with the likes of Chris Porter, Ryan Reaves, and Brett Sterling.

Cheechoo has spent much of this summer working on his foot speed and trying to become more explosive. He's hired a trainer who he's been working with twice a day up at Stanford University. Cheechoo's contract will pay him $600/$225. His base pay will be $600/$105 but if he never gets called up to NHL he will receive and additional $120,00 at the end of the season. If he is called up to the NHL he will obviously�be paid off of his $600,000 salary.

Spending $600K on Cheechoo ? that's Brian Elliot money ? was worth the shot for the Blues, if in fact this offseason training does anything to improve his skating. Cheechoo turns 31 on July 15.

Hopefully it does: He'll never be the player he was in 2006, but you'd like to see Jonathan Cheechoo become something more than a hardworking journeyman cautionary tale.

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