Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan is in Memorial Cup spotlight. Is he NHL-ready?

Easton Cowan is nearing the top of the mountain in Canadian junior hockey.

The Maple Leafs prospect is once again on the cusp of a Memorial Cup victory after losing narrowly in the final in 2024. If all goes his way, he could use a win to help propel him to a Leafs roster spot out of training camp in the fall.

That, of course, was Cowan’s goal in September 2024. The winger came into his second Leafs training camp after being named the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player. Then 19, Cowan looked from the outside like he had little left to prove with the OHL’s London Knights.

Turns out, after a haunting 4-3 loss in the 2024 Memorial Cup championship to the Saginaw Spirit, Cowan had a lot left to learn and to gain in his game.

“Our experience helps so much,” Cowan told reporters during this year’s Memorial Cup, sounding more like a crafty veteran with every 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 in the Memorial Cup semifinal Friday night. Cowan currently leads the Knights in the tournament with four points through three games.

Coming out on top could help Cowan enter his first professional season riding a wave of confidence. The 2023 first-round draft pick could benefit from possible turnover in the Leafs forward group. If he can match his confidence with improved habits, Cowan’s chances of beginning next season with the Leafs instead of the Toronto Marlies could rise, too.

Even with an OHL MVP nod in his back pocket, Cowan didn’t look that close to cracking the Leafs roster at the beginning of 2024 training camp. He began camp on a line with two players destined for the Marlies.

Though Cowan played as many preseason games as any other Leaf, the Leafs had a new coach in Craig Berube who, as the season wore on, clearly preferred veterans over  rolling the dice with young players. The team was also led by a relatively new general manager in Brad Treliving who believes in patience over throwing prospects into the fire.

Cowan spent this season in the OHL instead of the NHL.

“You can really impact a guy negatively trying to rush him versus developing him properly,” Treliving said of Cowan just before the start of last season. “We’re thinking long-term with him.”

That approach ended up benefiting Cowan.

Cowan was a leader on a dominant Knights team that topped fellow Leafs draft pick Ben Danford and the Oshawa Generals for the second year in a row in the OHL finals.

The sting of losing in a Memorial Cup final and being part of a Canadian World Juniors side that lost in two straight quarterfinals has led to some negativity coming Cowan’s way on social media. But the criticism has also provided some preparation for Cowan on what a pressure-filled life in Toronto could be like.

Cowan believes that now, a year after he first genuinely tried to crack the Leafs roster, he’s better prepared to deal with that noise. What the Leafs will be looking for is a player who can manage expectations as well as he manages the puck. Cowan took steps toward learning to deal with pressure earlier this year as he came under fire for his questionable decisions during 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 said. “You’ve just got to laugh it off, move on and live your life.”

Cowan was drafted as a high-octane player whose dog-on-a-bone mentality blended with evident skill made him a weapon in the offensive zone. After being drafted, he looked like a star game after game. His 96 points in just 54 games, combined with a point streak that ran 65 games over two seasons, were part of what made him the OHL’s most outstanding player in 2023-24.

Cowan’s 69 points in 46 games this season might appear to be a step back, especially considering this was his third full OHL season. But his box scores are not indicative of the player he has become.

“In the end, he has to be detailed,” Berube said of Cowan when the Leafs’ 2024 training 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.”

Throughout the regular season and, crucially, in the playoffs and Memorial Cup, Cowan is eradicating poor junior habits from his game.

Still, his skill with the puck has been evident during the Memorial Cup tournament.

What a move by Easton Cowan at the line.
Beauty tic tac toe winner for the Knights

pic.twitter.com/vXOvdpw2Fy

— Rink Rat Report (@RinkRatReport) May 26, 2025

Behind the scenes, the Knights staff have gone to great lengths to help Cowan’s game evolve. With input from the Leafs’ development staff, the Knights have focused on turning Cowan into a more trusted and reliable player at both ends of the ice. They’ve gone heavy on video to point out how he can improve defensively and be more aware in his 200-foot game.

Coaches have stressed the need to manage in-game situations better by relying less on speed and instincts and instead learning to compute what’s happening around him when making decisions with the puck.

In doing so, Cowan has become better at not putting the four players around him in potentially harmful situations. Cowan has learned to play within the Knights’ structure. He’s managing his effort levels so that he can be more effective late in games.

Late in the third period of the Knights’ second win of the Memorial Cup, up 3-1 on hosts Rimouski Oceanic, Cowan was sent over the boards to seal the win. And in doing so, he looked like a player who understood what could be required of him defending at the NHL level: Cowan laid out his body to block a shot that left him in obvious pain.

The Knights came away with the win to ensure they’d play, at least, in the Memorial Cup semifinal.

“No matter how much time is left, you have to play till the clock runs out,” Cowan told reporters.

Should Cowan have a hope of starting next season with the Leafs, it could be in a bottom-six role. Calle Järnkrok, David Kämpf and Steven Lorentz are all candidates to be off the Leafs roster next season.

Cowan will have to show he’s defensively responsible and can rely more on structure than skill. Of course, putting a few points on the board would help, as well. Depth scoring proved problematic for the Leafs this season.

Remember those aforementioned concerns over Cowan’s regular-season production?

Cowan led all OHL players in playoff scoring this year with 39 points in just 17 games.

Through the Memorial Cup, he’s looked more patient with the puck, focused on making crafty, intelligent plays. His shot looks heavier, too. At least by the eye test, Cowan looks like a bigger and stronger player than he was last year.

Cowan finished the season, and his OHL career, with 96 playoff points. That sits at the top of the Knights’ all-time playoff scoring. And it’s a reminder of why former Leafs director of amateur scouting Wes Clark pushed as hard as he did for Cowan in the 2023 draft: Clark and the Leafs believed Cowan could elevate his game late in the season when it matters.

He’s done that once again. And soon enough, he’ll have the chance to show the Leafs what that could mean 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.”

(Photo: David Kirouac / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)