I know that us Toronto Maple Leafs fans have been beaten down over the years, but it’s okay to get excited about Easton Cowan.
The Toronto Maple Leafs hottest prospect has already made an impression at camp and should be an impact player during the 2025 Prospects Showdown. This is Cowan’s third training camp, so although he’ll technically be a rookie this season, he’s not new to this routine.
There were talks about Cowan making the roster last year, but at the end of the day, it made sense for the OHL's most valuable player to return to London. The Knights are as close as it gets to an NHL-run program within the OHL, so another year dominating that league and winning a championship was only going to grow his confidence.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Cowan finished with 69 points in 46 regular season games but his game improved even more as he finished with 13 goals and 39 points in only 17 playoff games, helping the Knights win the OHL Championship, followed by a Memorial Cup.
I know that junior success doesn’t always translate to the professional ranks, but Cowan is on a fantastic trajectory. As Cowan ages from a teenager to an adult, adding weight and strength is one of the most important things. It's one thing to be very skillful, but durability at the NHL-level is sometimes a more important attribute and his Ben Danford has noticed his growth, as mentioned in this quote reported by Sportnet’s Sonny Sachdev:
“He’s maybe not the tallest guy, but he’s like a pitbull…a pretty stocky guy. When he has the puck, he’s low to the ice and hard to knock off,” said Danford.
Leafs fans should be confident about Easton Cowan
This is such an important quote because it could mean that the Leafs have another Matthew Knies on their hands. Knies has been known for his puck battling down-low in his first two seasons and that type of style has been very benefical playing alongside Auston Matthews.
If Cowan can bring that type of energy and style to the Leafs top-six, he will be an impactful player and someone the team will need to keep. I’ve always said that my perfect line in hockey is a goal-scorer, play-maker and puck retriever (ie: Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner), so if you can guarantee two of those three with John Tavares, William Nylander, Knies, Matthews and now Cowan in the top-six, this team is going to be very good.
It opens the idea of bringing Max Domi back into the top-six to serve as the play-maker role and can make the Leafs incredibly strong up front.
I know that you sometimes have to keep a younger player in the bottom-six until you trust them, but with Cowan, I think you need to give him the leash to play alongside Toronto’s best and see what happens. When the Leafs pushed Nick Robertson to the bottom-six, it killed his style of hockey and has turned him into arguably a bad asset now, and that’s not what we want with Cowan.
I’m eager to see how he plays in the Prospects Showdown and hope that he’s the real deal when the regular season starts in just under a month.