There are a lot of firsts at Toronto Maple Leafs training camp this week. A whole lot of new players are taking part after general manager John Chayka overhauled a significant section of the lineup. But over on the bench, Jim Hiller is having his first training camp as Leafs head coach and he's pointed out one player that has impressed him the most.
While Hiller has already worked with a lot of the Leafs core during his time as an assistant coach in Toronto, he's getting a glimpse at someone new and really liking what he sees. Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares are old hat. They're great and he knows it, but now he gets to see some young blood.
After the first day of Leafs training camp, Hiller was asked by media who stood out to him and he had a name right away.
“For me, it was Easton Cowan,” Hiller said. “He made some plays with the puck, but he was a puck handler. He was everywhere, I thought. And we talked to him about that. He’s got tremendous skill, but where he can help us best is to be a puck hound, and then use that skill.”
This is the first time Hiller has been able to get a close look at Cowan and it reads extremely positively. The 21-year-old winger impressed during his rookie campaign last year. While the majority of people expected him to spend nearly a full season with the Marlies, Cowan ended up playing in 66 games for the Leafs and scored 11 goals and 29 points along the way in a middle-six role.
Easton Cowan is poised for a big year with a solid opportunity
To start training camp this year, Cowan is back in a similar role but Hiller doesn't see it that way. He is on the third line with Nick Paul and Colton Sissons in what is on-paper as a fairly defensively oriented line, but there is room for something more and for Cowan to be a big part of it.
“You can say, oh, that’s a checking line, I see it as more than that,” Hiller continued. “That’s a line that could be able to play against other teams’ best players, but also push them offensively, because those three players, they can score goals. I think Easton can really be the straw that stirs the drink from an offensive perspective.”
If Cowan can be the main offensive player on that line, Paul and Sissons are fairly good supporters. Even if they start most of their shifts in defensive situations against opposing top lines, as Hiller mentioned, they can all work hard to win back possession and then move up the ice and create scoring chances themselves.
Nick Paul scored 22 goals two seasons ago and 24 the season before that for the Lightning, and Sissons has three double-digit goal seasons under his belt during his 12-year career as primarily a bottom-six player. There is potential for this line to be a suffocating defensive line while also contributing a good portion of offense. They might not be as run-and-gun as other lines, but when all is said and done, they will most likely outscore the opponent -- that is, if the plan works.
Cowan could be in for a massive sophomore season and Hiller is setting him up for success. If someone like Jack Roslovic can't work in the top six, or Gavin McKenna is just trying to keep his head above water, Cowan is probably going to get the first chance as their replacement.
Just another player to be excited about this season.
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