Will Easton Cowan be on Toronto Maple Leafs opening night roster?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the offseason with no real answers yet about their team’s outlook for next year.
There’s plenty of uncertainty about the future of Mitch Marner and John Tavares, questions about the team’s leadership after the departure of Brendan Shanahan, and curiosity about whether major trades could possibly be on the way.
One thing that isn’t in question is who their best young asset outside the main roster is.
Easton Cowan, Toronto’s first-round draft pick in 2023, has shot right to the top of most prospect rankings during his years with the franchise.
His junior career has gone about as well as you could’ve expected, and it’s safe to say he’s done just about everything he can at that level.
This past season with the London Knights, Cowan put up 29 goals and 40 assists over 46 regular-season games, followed by 13 goals and 26 assists over 17 OHL playoff games en route to the league title. At the Memorial Cup, Cowan added four goals and three assists in five games to win tournament MVP and the national title itself. A year after falling in the Memorial Cup Final to OHL rivals Saginaw, it’s a fitting cap to a junior career.
The Leafs opted to send Cowan back to junior last season after his second NHL preseason, where he put up one assist in four games.
“I get it, the fans, everybody gets excited. We want to see the new toy. But experience teaches you a lot of things… You can really impact a guy negatively trying to rush him versus developing him properly,” Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said in October, per Sportsnet. “We’re thinking long-term with him.”
Elliotte Friedman had reported earlier this past season that teams were targeting Cowan as one of the Leafs’ top trade chips, though no deal ever came to fruition. The Leafs clearly view Cowan quite highly, even if he’s still waiting on his NHL debut.
But one difference between this season and last is that Cowan is now eligible for the AHL come October, as he turns 20 in May. Traditionally, players out of Canadian junior hockey must either join their NHL roster or wait until they’re 20 before making the jump to the AHL.
Based on how things are currently shaping up, Toronto has four unrestricted free agent forwards, Marner, Tavares, Max Pacioretty, and Steven Lorentz, and three restricted forwards, Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg, and Matthew Knies. Assuming that all seven will be back is pretty unlikely, which opens up a potential roster spot at the NHL level for Cowan out of training camp.
Ultimately, with no other top-end forward prospects in Toronto’s system as of right now and a few openings likely, a roster spot might be Cowan’s to lose. Nothing’s guaranteed right now, but we’d hazard a guess that he’s set to make his NHL debut this coming October.
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