Getty
What do the Toronto Maple Leafs do with Easton Cowan?
The Toronto Maple Leafs want to win. The coaching staff and management don’t mind which players are in which roles as long as the W’s roll in; however, when it comes to players like Easton Cowan, placement matters.
Bruce Boudreau believes that the Maple Leafs need to take an all-or-nothing approach to Cowan. He made an appearance on The Leafs Morning Take podcast to share his thoughts.
Bruce Boudreau on Easton Cowan
For Cowan to have success at the NHL level, he should be playing with one of John Tavares, Matthew Knies, or Auston Matthews. Being a team player is necessary, but his role needs to align with his skills.
Boudreau, a former head coach of the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks, expressed his feelings about Cowan’s trajectory with the Maple Leafs.
“I’m all for going down to the Marlies,” Boudreau said on the September 26th episode of Leafs Morning Take. “One of the rules that Bob Murray (taught)…he was great at saying, if you weren’t going to play 12 minutes in the NHL on a game-to-game basis, you’re going down to the minors.”
“You’re going to develop down there by playing 17 minutes plus. You’re not sitting on the bench.”
Boudreau expanded on that reasoning by offering details on why playing on the fourth line isn’t an excellent scenario for a young player.
“Usually (with) fourth lines, if the game is close, you’re playing eight minutes or less,” the former coach explained.
He then revealed his approach to Cowan for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
“I would want him playing full minutes, being in important positions with the Marlies, if it was me,” Boudreau said. “Rather than playing a fourth-line role up in Toronto.”
Maple Leafs Can’t Let Cowan Work up From 4th Line
GettyWhat do the Toronto Maple Leafs do with Easton Cowan?
The unfortunate reality of the Maple Leafs’ cap situation has them in a bind. They need valuable players on inexpensive contracts. They also need to utilize their skilled players’ skills.
The question the Maple Leafs need to ask themselves is this: do they want Cowan to be a helpful player, or do they want to maximize his potential, resulting in him being a Calder Trophy Finalist?
Calder Trophy Winners Play Big Minutes
GettyConnor Bedard with the Calder Trophy
When you look at the last four Calder Trophy Winners, they all have one thing in common. All of them served their team in prominent roles.
The last four Calder winners are Lane Hutson of the Montreal Canadiens, Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks, Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken, and Moritz Seider of the Detroit Red Wings.
How can we tell if a player is in a prominent role or not? The easiest way is ice time.
Last year, Huston averaged 22:44 in ice time. The other defender, Seider, averaged 23:02 when he won the Calder. The forwards, Bedard and Beniers, played 19:47 and 17:06, respectively, in the years they took home the top rookie award.
All four of these winners didn’t have to work up from the fourth line or the bottom pairing. They started the year in a big role and finished the year in a big role.
Another factor to consider is the rest of the team. If every other line is playing like they should, including Cowan on the fourth line, now they have created a new problem for themselves that wasn’t necessary. Coaches don’t like to fix what isn’t broken, and if Cowan excels in a bottom-six role and every other line is doing well, nothing motivates the coach to mix up the lines.
Promoting Cowan up the lineup during the regular season sounds like a nice, safe approach. However, if they want to maximize his potential and not just settle for “useful,” they need to be all-in, either in Toronto or with the Marlies.
Caleb Kerney Caleb covers the NHL for Heavy.com. He has covered professional hockey since 2022, including bylines at Dobber Prospects, The Hockey Writers, and The Hockey News. More about Caleb Kerney
More Heavy on Maple Leafs
Loading more stories