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There’s something about Cowan. Something intangible, and maybe not about him at all, but he’s not a favourite of Leafs fans. His draft number is too low, he hasn’t got the big corps of people telling us all that he’s great the way Mitch Marner had. He’s played in the same milieu on the London Knights, going all the way to the Memorial Cup, played the same role on the top line, got some points records, but there’s something people find unconvincing.

I’m convinced. I have been for a long time. It would be extremely unlikely for him to be the equal of Mitch Marner, but there’s still going to be people today, next weekend in Montréal, the one after than as the Leafs go into preseason prognosticating that he will never make the NHL.

Nihilism is in fashion. So on trend. So this year’s pose. Strike the pose. Anxiety is where it’s at. Everything was too hot not to cool down, and this is a cold, cold season. Maybe that’s the reason it’s cool to be cool about Cowan.

Easton Cowan
Vitals

Age as of July 1
20.12

Position
C

Height
5’11”

Weight (lbs)
185

Shoots
L

Draft Year
2023

Draft Number
28

Cowan’s agent says he’s actually six feet tall now and 190 pounds, but those numbers above are the official stats until the training camp medicals next week. That this is considered relevant is a sad commentary on the sport, and the way people fixate on body size, but nonetheless, Cowan has been working hard for a year to improve in ways that matter.

Will it be enough to convince the coolly pessimistic?

The Player

I’m cautiously taking this season’s tracked stats seriously since it’s so many games, but the prior year should fuzz into a grey haze of background. What’s good here? Space Creation stands out for me. His other defence metrics do too.

Cowan went into this past season in the OHL wearing that – and I’m sorry, but it is – tired old worn out line about nothing left to gain from junior. Oh, if only he could be in the AHL, and… well, if you honestly believed that was true last summer then I have to ask how closely you watched the Memorial Cup games of 2024. Because the stupid junior tricks were well in evidence. The attitude that only the slick offensive moves mattered was being broadcast loud and clear.

And the very uninspiring Leafs training camp that followed last September where he was wholly outmanned by Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin in games against weak AHL-level competition sealed it. He had a lot left to learn from a team like the Knights where the level of play expected is high and growth is considered to be the job. It was also very fortuitous that the Knights played a couple of similarly minded teams in the Cup run and had to actually shift themselves to put in the effort.

All this unsexy, no goal gif was made, no records were set defensive and neutral zone discipline and technique was what he was there to learn. He was also there to learn how to commit to offence that will succeed, not just seem like the thing to do in the heat of the moment. In other words, it was a year for the brain to grow, the body is and was, merely along for the ride.

The Cowan of 2024 was fun and exasperating and sure loved a shorthanded rush. The camera closes in tight when you’re one of four guys and you’re going for it at top speed. The Cowan of 2025 has started to care a lot more about what the coach thinks.

And yet, your heart sank didn’t it? You buy in on this idea that the kidz just wanna have fun, and do sick hands moves and play fast and loose and wheeeeee. It’s so beautiful, so magical, it’s not even work. Hockey doodle doo a fellow writer called that once, and it’s not a compliment. Anyhow, the mean coach comes along and tells the kidz to make their beds and be adults and learn about respect and responsibility and goal-oriented thinking. They have to assess risk and measure rewards, and ugh, so boring.

Boo hoo. So you have to grow up and start doing the things that win. Life was so much better when you were 18. Or so it gets remembered. Even when the grind of losing wears you down, you still think there was this magical land of butterflies and ankle breaking dekes where responsible play was a dirty word and the angels sang whenever a player took off on a rush chance. Last year was Cowan’s farewell to all that, and his time to develop the mature version of the Cowboy Way and he sure made it count.

He wants to make the Leafs, I don’t doubt for a second he believes it’s in him. Maybe it is. Maybe he will be in the opening night lineup, and somewhere along the way this season, he’ll learn, and we’ll all remember, that making the playoff roster is the real goal, and aching in every bone of your body, worn out and wasted after a dozen and a half playoff games is the ultimate achievement. He’s done that more recently than anyone else on the Leafs.

Every blue bar on that tracking graph pushing to the extreme on the boring bed-making parts of the game says to me he has a chance to make the important roster, if not the first one in early October.

This is an intense and meaningful time for a hockey player – potential building up to burst out into someone new. Better, stronger, faster, but much more importantly, smarter than he was before. He’s 20. He’s the guy with the runway, not that 24-year-old you want to believe in (or argue about). He’s the one with the chance. And he has the tools to make it happen.

By next summer, he’ll be substantially better than he is right now. Think back for a moment to Knies at 20 and Knies at 21. And in case you’ve forgotten as you’ve been coolly pessimistic about Cowan who wasn’t good enough last year. Sniff. Knies at 20 was NCAA year one, and Knies at 21 was year two where he joined the Leafs at the end of the season.

The Votes

No disagreement here. My short take on Cowan was that I voted him over Matt Knies last year, and I haven’t changed my opinion on Cowan at all, Knies took a leap, not a step and vaulted over Cowan all on his own. Now it’s Cowan who is poised to leap.

Voter
Vote

Cathy
2

Brigstew
2

Species
2

Hardev
2

shinson93
2

Cameron
2

Zone Entry
2

Svalbard38
2

dhammm
2

adam
2

Weighted Average
2

Highest Vote
2

Lowest Vote
2

The Opinions

Brigstew: I think the hype cooled around Cowan a bit because of the World Juniors, and because his production fell off from the previous season. I think the problem is that he seemed to very much be trying to learn the details he was told he needed to be a pro, and he is so good he could try and play differently in junior and still be a top player while he was experimenting and learning on the fly. He went from being more of a pure playmaker who could score the occasional goal, to becoming more of a sniper/finisher, and his shot got a lot better. All of the drop in his points came from assists, his goal per game rate was about the same. And then at the end of the year, he turned into an absolute monster. He had 25 goals and 70 points in his last 32 games between the regular season, OHL playoffs, and Memorial Cup. He set franchise records, in one of the top franchises in the CHL, for his performances. He is one of the top producing players in OHL playoff history. I don’t think he’ll ever be a super star in the NHL, but he should be the next best prospect in a long time to come through Toronto’s system, only after Matthew Knies.

Shinson93:  He did just about everything he needed to in playing another year in the OHL.  He should push for a lineup spot out of camp, but likely gets AHL time.  I expect him to push for an injury call-up later in the season and we’ll see where it goes from there.  He’ll play in the NHL, it’s just a matter of how soon.

dhammm: The closest thing the Leafs have to a blue-chip prospect but a victim of how hard it is for D+2 CHLers to show explosive improvement year over year. Two straight disappointing WoJu tournaments for Team Canada as a whole didn’t help either, and I was surprised there wasn’t more of a conversation in camp last year about at least giving Cowan some games. It all added up to a season where it felt Cowan merely met the lofty expectations on him rather than exceeded them yet again, which is unfair because he graduates the OHL doing basically everything you could have asked from him there. As he looks ahead to turning pro, I hope he changes my tone again like he did in his D+1 campaign, when I began to believe that there was a chance he might actually become a star.

Svalbard38: A lot of people cooled on Cowan this season because he had a disappointing WJC, but everyone on that team had a disappointing WJC. Cowan led Canada in points, and he was coming off an injury too. The fault for that tournament lies squarely at the feet of management and coaching. His playoff run was spectacular. A second J. Ross Robertson, led the OHL playoffs in points, a Memorial Cup, Memorial Cup MVP, first player to lead the Memorial Cup in scoring twice. I’m very willing to trust the larger body of work over a tournament where he missed training camp and then barely got the chance to practice with the team because of the baffling decision to keep cancelling the practices.

What’s your take? Are you on trend in a dull black wardrobe faded to an anxious grey? Is every good player actually bad and a disappointment to you? But his points though, but the WJC though. Is it all just futile? Or are you ready to watch a hockey player become the best version of himself right in front of your eyes.

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