“Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan is in Memorial Cup spotlight. Is he NHL-ready?”
Easton Cowan is nearing the highest of the mountain in Canadian junior hockey.
The Maple Leafs prospect is as soon as once more on the cusp of a Memorial Cup victory after dropping narrowly within the last in 2024. If all goes his manner, he may use a win to assist propel him to a Leafs roster spot out of coaching camp within the fall.
That, after all, was Cowan’s purpose in September 2024. The winger got here into his second Leafs coaching camp after being named the OHL’s Most Excellent Participant. Then 19, Cowan seemed from the surface like he had little left to show with the OHL’s London Knights.
Seems, after a haunting 4-3 loss within the 2024 Memorial Cup championship to the Saginaw Spirit, Cowan had lots left to be taught and to realize in his recreation.
“Our experience helps so much,” Cowan informed reporters throughout this yr’s Memorial Cup, sounding extra like a artful veteran with each passing sentence. “In all these close games we’ve played so far, we’ve come out on top.”
Cowan and the OHL champion London Knights are set to play within the Memorial Cup semifinal Friday evening. Cowan at the moment leads the Knights within the match with 4 factors by means of three video games.
Popping out on prime may assist Cowan enter his first skilled season using a wave of confidence. The 2023 first-round draft decide may gain advantage from attainable turnover within the Leafs ahead group. If he can match his confidence with improved habits, Cowan’s probabilities of starting subsequent season with the Leafs as a substitute of the Toronto Marlies may rise, too.
Even with an OHL MVP nod in his again pocket, Cowan didn’t look that near cracking the Leafs roster at the start of 2024 coaching camp. He started camp on a line with two gamers destined for the Marlies.
Although Cowan performed as many preseason video games as some other Leaf, the Leafs had a brand new coach in Craig Berube who, because the season wore on, clearly most well-liked veterans over rolling the cube with younger gamers. The staff was additionally led by a comparatively new basic supervisor in Brad Treliving who believes in persistence over throwing prospects into the hearth.
Cowan spent this season within the OHL as a substitute of the NHL.
“You can really impact a guy negatively trying to rush him versus developing him properly,” Treliving said of Cowan simply earlier than the beginning of final season. “We’re thinking long-term with him.”
That strategy ended up benefiting Cowan.
Cowan was a pacesetter on a dominant Knights staff that topped fellow Leafs draft decide Ben Danford and the Oshawa Generals for the second yr in a row within the OHL finals.
The sting of dropping in a Memorial Cup last and being a part of a Canadian World Juniors facet that misplaced in two straight quarterfinals has led to some negativity coming Cowan’s manner on social media. However the criticism has additionally offered some preparation for Cowan on what a pressure-filled life in Toronto could possibly be like.
Cowan believes that now, a yr after he first genuinely tried to crack the Leafs roster, he’s higher ready to cope with that noise. What the Leafs can be on the lookout for is a participant who can handle expectations in addition to he manages the puck. Cowan took steps towards studying to cope with strain earlier this yr as he got here underneath hearth for his questionable selections throughout the 2025 World Juniors.
“I’ve said it since I was drafted to Toronto: People are going to love you, or people are going to hate you,” Cowan mentioned. “You’ve just got to laugh it off, move on and live your life.”
Cowan was drafted as a high-octane participant whose dog-on-a-bone mentality blended with evident talent made him a weapon within the offensive zone. After being drafted, he seemed like a star recreation after recreation. His 96 factors in simply 54 video games, mixed with some extent streak that ran 65 video games over two seasons, have been a part of what made him the OHL’s most excellent participant in 2023-24.
Cowan’s 69 factors in 46 video games this season would possibly look like a step again, particularly contemplating this was his third full OHL season. However his field scores are usually not indicative of the participant he has turn out to be.
“In the end, he has to be detailed,” Berube mentioned of Cowan when the Leafs’ 2024 coaching camp opened. “A lot of players coming out of junior hockey still have the junior habits. He needs to show us that he doesn’t have those junior habits anymore.”
All through the common season and, crucially, within the playoffs and Memorial Cup, Cowan is eradicating poor junior habits from his recreation.
Nonetheless, his talent with the puck has been evident throughout the Memorial Cup match.
What a transfer by Easton Cowan on the line.
Magnificence tic tac toe winner for the Knights— Rink Rat Report (@RinkRatReport) May 26, 2025
Behind the scenes, the Knights workers have gone to nice lengths to assist Cowan’s recreation evolve. With enter from the Leafs’ growth workers, the Knights have centered on turning Cowan right into a extra trusted and dependable participant at each ends of the ice. They’ve gone heavy on video to level out how he can enhance defensively and be extra conscious in his 200-foot recreation.
Coaches have harassed the necessity to handle in-game conditions higher by relying much less on pace and instincts and as a substitute studying to compute what’s taking place round him when making selections with the puck.
In doing so, Cowan has turn out to be higher at not placing the 4 gamers round him in probably dangerous conditions. Cowan has realized to play throughout the Knights’ construction. He’s managing his effort ranges in order that he might be simpler late in video games.
Late within the third interval of the Knights’ second win of the Memorial Cup, up 3-1 on hosts Rimouski Oceanic, Cowan was despatched over the boards to seal the win. And in doing so, he seemed like a participant who understood what could possibly be required of him defending on the NHL stage: Cowan laid out his physique to dam a shot that left him in apparent ache.
The Knights got here away with the win to make sure they’d play, at the least, within the Memorial Cup semifinal.
“No matter how much time is left, you have to play till the clock runs out,” Cowan informed reporters.
Ought to Cowan have a hope of beginning subsequent season with the Leafs, it could possibly be in a bottom-six position. Calle Järnkrok, David Kämpf and Steven Lorentz are all candidates to be off the Leafs roster subsequent season.
Cowan should present he’s defensively accountable and may rely extra on construction than talent. After all, placing a number of factors on the board would assist, as properly. Depth scoring proved problematic for the Leafs this season.
Keep in mind these aforementioned issues over Cowan’s regular-season manufacturing?
Cowan led all OHL gamers in playoff scoring this yr with 39 factors in simply 17 video games.
Via the Memorial Cup, he’s seemed extra affected person with the puck, centered on making artful, clever performs. His shot appears to be like heavier, too. A minimum of by the attention take a look at, Cowan appears to be like like an even bigger and stronger participant than he was final yr.
Cowan completed the season, and his OHL profession, with 96 playoff factors. That sits on the prime of the Knights’ all-time playoff scoring. And it’s a reminder of why former Leafs director of novice scouting Wes Clark pushed as arduous as he did for Cowan within the 2023 draft: Clark and the Leafs believed Cowan may elevate his recreation late within the season when it issues.
He’s carried out that after once more. And shortly sufficient, he’ll have the prospect to indicate the Leafs what that would imply for his NHL future.
“Being able to achieve that type of mark come playoff hockey, that’s the key to good players,” Knights coach Dale Hunter said. “To do it during the year and then to bring it to the playoffs when the compete level is high, that’s what NHL teams look for.”
(Picture: David Kirouac / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Pictures)
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