Easton Cowan shares advice he received from Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner ahead of World Juniors

Easton Cowan is ready to dominate the upcoming World Juniors, but like all prospects, he still has a lot of room from improvement and is open to advice from two of the NHL’s biggest stars.

Cowan said he received some well wishes from Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Fraser Minten and Ben Danford, Toronto’s 2024 first-round pick.

“He likes to chirp me here and there. He’s just saying good luck and play your game and do your thing. Coming from him, it means a lot,” Cowan said of the message he received from Marner to TSN’s Mark Masters.

Marner was Cowan’s boyhood idol growing up, but the two players are now peers, as Cowan could graduate to the NHL on a permanent basis as early as next season. Marner is a proud London Knights alumnus, while Cowan currently holds a 56-game point streak with the Knights over the span of two seasons, setting the OHL’s unofficial record.

Matthews had a similar, simple message to Cowan:

“Not much, he just said good luck, score some goals. He’s had a lot of goals in that rink in his debut there, I was chirping about that,” Cowan said, referencing Matthews’ four-goal performance in his first NHL game against the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa is hosting this year’s World Juniors, which officially begins on December 26, with the gold medal game on January 5.

Cowan is off to an excellent start, recording a hat-trick for Canada in a dominant performance against Switzerland in a pre-tournament game Thursday. As a returning player who will likely play in all situations for Canada, Cowan will be competing for tournament MVP while trying to lead his country to a gold medal, after a disappointing 5th-place finish in last year’s event.

The 19-year-old is the Maple Leafs’ top prospect but he could graduate into a household name if he leads Canada to the gold medal with some individual hardware. It will be a pressure-packed situation for anyone, but Cowan knows he has the full support of his future teammates at any time.

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