FACT: In his first full year in the league, Cheechoo scored 28 goals playing largely on the third line, I believe with Mike Ricci and Scott Thornton, neither of whom are exactly offensive dynamos.
FACT: In those first 25 games of the season, the entire team struggled. Remember there was a 10 game losing streak in there. Losing streaks have a nasty habit of not letting players add to their stat totals all that much.
FACT: Any player who plays with the eventual Art Ross winner on their line is going to experience some increase to their point totals. However, 99% of the time, the players on lines with such offensive catalysts are no slouches themselves. In order for Cheechoo to be put into the situation he was in and succeed, he had to have some latent offensive ability. After all, why didn't Scott Thornton and Nils Ekman break out while on the Joe line? Ekman finished with 1 less goal and 2 more points after playing most of the season with Joe and Cheech. Scott finished with 3 less goals and 6 less points last season compared to the season before. Granted his play on the top line was limited, but he never showed any real improvement in that time.
FACT: Cheechoo is not a leech.
A leech should be defined as someone whose achievments are significantly increased and solely the result of a specific teammate.
Cheechoo was almost a 30 goal scorer with checking line companions. Logic suggests that over the course of a full season, he would do better with scoring line forwards. Your stat setup shows this, because even with a struggling team Cheechoo was on pace for better totals (albeit only slightly better). Logic again suggests that if the team went on a winning streak, Cheechoo could've conceivably scored more points than his initial pace was set for.
Do I believe that Cheech would've been a 50 goal man without Thornton? I'd say it would've been very unlikely. Do I believe that he could've eventually scored, say, 40 goals if Thornton hadn't arrived. I think that wouldn't be an impossible total. Do I think that adding 16 goals to that total due to the addition of the guy who won the freaking Art Ross qualifies him as a leech? Absolutley not.
By your logic, shouldn't Joe be considered a leech since Cheechoo's 56 goals obviously contributed to his assist totals? Joe averaged 1.4 points per game in Boston. He averaged about 1.6 points per game in San Jose. It might only be .2 points per game, but that .2 means that every 5 games he notched an extra point. And considering that his goals per game level is virtually the same in both Boston and San Jose last season (less than 0.1 goals per game difference), I'd say that those extra points were coming in the form of assists. Assists that usually found the blade of Cheechoo's stick. No Cheech, no Art Ross for Thornton. Leech? I doubt anyone would be willing to make that claim.
