Welcome to Last Word on Hockey’s One Hit Wonder series. Each day, we will take a look at a new team’s three biggest one-hit wonders. These are players that had one great season or playoff run but never did anything like that again. Join us every day for a new team! Today we take a look at the San Jose Sharks One-Hit Wonders.
San Jose Sharks One-Hit Wonders
Devin Setoguchi
The first of the Sharks one-hit wonders is Devin Setoguchi. A promising young talent, Setoguchi benefited early in his career from playing alongside Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, and Joe Pavelski in their primes. Setoguchi would not maintain his success for the majority of his career though. He would later struggle to stay in an NHL lineup, spending significant chunks of his career in the AHL, especially after leaving San Jose in 2011.
One-Hit Season
In 2007–08, Devin Setoguchi split his rookie year between the San Jose Sharks and their AHL affiliate Worcester. He even became the first Sharks rookie to ever score two goals in his first NHL game. But it wasn’t until the 08–09 season where he fully broke out, becoming a permanent fixture on the Sharks lineup with 31 goals and 65 points in the regular season. He added another three points in the Sharks brief postseason appearance that year, where they lost in six games in the first round.
As this was his first full season on an NHL lineup, expectations were high and optimism surrounded the young forward. It seemed like Setoguchi had found his game and his confidence. He projected to be a serious difference-maker for the Sharks moving forward.
After the Wonder
Setoguchi would never again find that level of success. The following season would see his point production drop from 65 points to a dismal 36. After a second disappointing season in 10–11, the Sharks sent him as part of a package deal to Minnesota in a trade that would bring Brent Burns to San Jose. Setoguchi had little to no success after. He bounced around from team to team, even spending multiple seasons overseas in Europe, where he would eventually end his professional career without quite found his scoring touch again.
Rob Gaudreau
Second on the list of San Jose Sharks one-hit wonders is Rob Gaudreau. Gaudreau had a short NHL career that lasted only four years. He made an initial splash upon entering the league, and then never made much of an impact beyond that. Most fans outside of San Jose won’t know his name. But even in his short career, Gaudreau managed to leave his mark on Sharks history.
One-Hit Season
Rob Gaudreau made his NHL debut for the young San Jose Sharks franchise in 1992, the second year of the team’s existence. After joining the team part-way through the season, Gaudreau would make an instant impression in the last 59 games of the season. He managed 23 goals in that span, and even recorded the first two hat-tricks in Sharks history. He would also be the first Sharks player ever to be named the NHL Rookie of the Month, getting the nod in December 1992.
After the Wonder
Gaudreau would have a muted impact the rest of his career, playing only one more full (and disappointing) season in San Jose. He then finished his NHL career in Ottawa two seasons later. After Ottawa, Gaudreau played one year in Switzerland before retiring from the sport completely.
Jonathan Cheechoo
No list of San Jose Sharks one-hit wonders could possibly be complete without Jonathan Cheechoo. His career is both strange and exemplary of the type of one-hit season that spawned this series in the first place. His professional career spans nearly two decades, yet only six of those seasons were in the NHL. He may never have had the successful career in the NHL that many expected, but he certainly left a mark on its history books.
One-Hit Season
Immediately following the lockout, Jonathan Cheechoo burst into NHL history books in 2005–06, scoring 56 goals and becoming the first Sharks player to win the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy. He was only the second aboriginal player in NHL history to record more than 50 goals in one season. Cheechoo benefited from playing alongside the legendary Joe Thornton, and together they ripped apart opposing defenses, combining for 185 points. Cheechoo looked to be a premier goal scorer in the league. Hopes were that he could one day lead this Sharks franchise to their very first Stanley Cup victory.
After the Wonder
Cheechoo struggled in the early part of the following season. His struggles were due in part to a failed line combination when the recently added forward Mark Bell was paired alongside Cheechoo and Thornton. After Bell was benched, Cheechoo’s numbers improved a bit, but certainly not to the level of the previous year. Then in the 2007 offseason, Cheechoo had double hernia surgery after an injury in the recent postseason. He would never return to form, failing to even record 40 points in an NHL season again. Cheechoo would become an AHL regular before finishing the last four years of his career in the KHL.
Main image credit: Embed from Getty Images
