Easton Cowan is ready to get a look in the NHL with the Maple Leafs

Easton Cowan has one thing fuelling him.

“I want to play in the NHL. That’s been my goal since day one,” the 2023 first-round pick and most notable attendee at Toronto Maple Leafs development camp said Wednesday.

Last season, the electric winger was given a front-row seat to the NHL when he stuck around training camp longer than expected to practice with pro players and learn valuable lessons about life in the league. The confidence he gained through the experience and his unparalleled work ethic and dynamic game in the offensive zone allowed him to nab every personal award and team championship imaginable in the OHL last season.

Cowan has shown he’s ready for the next step in his career.

As he’s done so, Leafs general manager Brad Treliving has been clear about wanting to add another forward to the mix heading into next season.

And now, as helpful as development camp can be to get a glimpse into a player’s development, the only way to know whether they can handle the next step in their career is by playing NHL games.

Come the fall, there should be no consideration to sending Cowan back to play in the OHL. Instead, the Leafs’ best prospect should be given every chance to be one of the forwards added to the Leafs’ roster on opening night and then a healthy slate of games to start the season.

“We think we have some young players coming, but we certainly don’t want to start jamming young players in if they are not ready,” Treliving said.

Giving Cowan some runway to start the season wouldn’t be a case of jamming him into this Leafs roster, though. Throughout his season, Cowan demonstrated the qualities that this revamped Leafs management and coaching staff desire: He’s a fiery competitor, relentless on pucks and not afraid to get involved physically.

This isn’t about jamming a square peg into a round hole. The Leafs appear to have an organizational philosophy toward players that extends from the draft table to the coaching staff to the ice. Cowan, especially when you add in his natural playmaking abilities, embodies that.

“I just look at it like (Cowan) won’t be denied,” Leafs assistant general manager, player development, Hayley Wickenheiser said.

In development camp, Cowan looks larger than last season, having filled out his frame. He sounds older too, admitting his flaws in the first day in a way many young players might not.

“Not letting the last shift get to you. I felt like, in my draft year, I was letting it get to me a bit too much. I saw some steps this year where I was moving on and playing with confidence each and every shift,” Cowan said of where he’s improved.

What Cowan showed through his MVP season with the London Knights was just how impactful he could be when it mattered.

He didn’t shy away from contact and played through the physical side of the game with the kind of strong internal drive that not every player possesses. Cowan added creative offensive touches to his game with the puck that allowed him to lead the OHL in playoff scoring. And his attention to detail while being an ever-hungry penalty killer improved, making him look more and more ready to take reps down a man at the next level.

“There’s a lot that he has to learn: The pace of the game and he may not be able to get away with things like long shifts,” Wickenheiser said. “But those things are teachable and correctable. But you can’t teach the passion and the will to influence a game like he does.”

When Matthew Knies went straight from the NCAA to the NHL, there were moments when he only kept his head above water. But ultimately, putting him into the NHL and letting him figure out the league as he played was the right move. Now, the success of Knies shouldn’t be the outlier with the Leafs, as it has been in recent years. Knies’ ability to come into the NHL full of confidence (which Cowan and Fraser Minten have after strong junior seasons) should provide a blueprint.

This is an organization that feels so resistant to change that giving Minten four NHL games well over a year after he was drafted was arguably the story to start last season.

That shouldn’t be the case: The Stanley Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers also had a top-heavy roster with a few highly-paid forwards. They needed cheap players who could provide salary cap relief and fill a role, just like Cowan could. And the Oilers still gave playoff ice time to two of their highest-rated prospects, Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, both of whom had less than a full season of NHL experience under their belt.

The arguments that both were higher draft picks than Cowan don’t hold weight: If you’ve played your way to the top of a team’s prospect pool, whichever NHL teams didn’t elect to pick you years earlier is irrelevant.

Easton Cowan has nothing left to prove in the OHL. (Chris Tanouye / Getty Images)

“I think Cowan has a chip on his shoulder that he wasn’t drafted higher. I think he feels he’s proving people wrong every time he’s on the ice,” Wickenheiser said.

Nick Robertson, after all, was a second-round draft pick in 2019 and for a time was the Leafs’ best prospect. And right now, the Leafs would do well to avoid having another young player questioning their role within the team, as Robertson seems to be.

Access to picks toward the beginning of the draft is rare for the Leafs. There is more to be gained by giving young, homegrown players regular ice time and allowing them to develop the way a coaching staff and management wants them to instead of plugging holes with, forgive the term, random dudes on one-year deals.

Would the likes of Cowan, Robertson and Minten likely make more mistakes on the ice early in the season than, say, the recently signed Cédric Paré? Probably.

“(Cowan) is still maturing so there’s a little bit of naïveté, which I think sets him up because he’s fearless on the ice,” Wickenheiser said.

Would the opportunity to learn from those mistakes turn them into better players in the long run? Pick any term stronger than probably. Sending Cowan back to a league without challenge and growth opportunities won’t benefit him as a player.

There is enough high-end talent on this roster that should prevent the playoffs from falling out of reach. They can afford to give Cowan a season toward the bottom of the lineup. If the Leafs want to create sustainable success within their roster and prevent having to rely on overpaying players in free agency, an imperative step to take is to start providing regular playing opportunities to players like Cowan early in the season.

Yes, Cowan has to show he can earn a spot out of training camp. But the Leafs would do well to provide him a path to that spot as well. Dangling a carrot of an open lineup spot could be a reminder to him of his importance to the organization while simultaneously raising the expectations around him.

“(Cowan) loves to be in those big moments,” Wickenheiser said. “You want players like that, who don’t shy away.”

Cowan has shown he can hit the highest highs in junior hockey. There’s nothing left for him to prove outside the OHL.

And so as intriguing as his play in development camp has been this week, for the benefit of the Leafs organization, it should only be a precursor to his first NHL games come October.

“I know that in his mind, he wants to play in the NHL next year,” Wickenheiser said. “And that’s, of course, what we would like him to be able to do. But he has to be able to come in and earn the spot and be able to contribute night in and night out.”

(Top photo: Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)