What does a successful 2025-26 season look like for Easton Cowan?

With the conclusion of the 2024-25 season also comes the conclusion of Easton Cowan’s junior career. And talk about a player who got people talking.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Cowan in 2023, nobody knew who he was. Draft experts had him pegged as a third-round pick, maybe a late-second round pick at most, but the Leafs went way off the board and selected him with the 28th overall pick. Considering his solid but not eye-popping point totals in the regular season and his undersized stature, fans weren’t too thrilled with the pick initially. That is, until he broke onto the scene in 2023-24.

Cowan had an insane ascent from his rookie year to his sophomore season, going from 53 points in 68 games to 96 points in 54 games with one offseason in between. He set the OHL franchise regular for consecutive games recording a point and took that all the way into the playoffs. The record didn’t officially count anymore once the regular season ended, but where’s the fun in acknowledging that? Cowan had ten goals and 34 points in 18 playoff games to lead the London Knights to the Memorial Cup, where the Knights lost in heartbreaking fashion to the host Saginaw Spirit.

Cowan came back in 2024-25 and didn’t quite reach the stardom of the previous year in the regular season, but still proved himself as one of the Knights’ most reliable forwards with 29 goals and 69 points in 46 games. When the playoffs came around, Cowan came back with a vengeance and somehow improved his output from the previous season, this time with 13 goals and 39 points in 17 playoff games, and the most important part, a Memorial Cup win. Cowan was named Memorial Cup MVP, marking the end of his junior career in the same fashion he likely grew up dreaming about as a kid.

The one damper on Cowan’s post-draft career was the two World Juniors tournaments he took part in. Team Canada has struggled mightily at the World Juniors in the past two years, falling in the Quarter Finals in each occasion, and in the most recent edition, Cowan was expected to have a big role for Canada and help inspire a comeback for the nation in a tournament they’re so respected and typically feared in. He took some of the blame for costly penalties and a general lack of offensive performance, but in reality, Canada’s management team left off a ton of key names and thus forced Cowan into a role he probably shouldn’t have been in. Nonetheless, he learned from the experience and proved he had big-game qualities with his team’s Memorial Cup run.

Now, with nothing else to gain from his junior experience, the focus shifts to securing an NHL job.

The expectation: Start pro career strong with Toronto Marlies and earn a call-up

Cowan is more than likely going to begin this season in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies. With a couple of high-profile players including prospects Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin, along with veterans like Joseph Blandisi moving on to other teams, the opportunity for him to come in and slide into a top-six role with the Marlies is on a silver platter waiting for him. At 20 years old, he’s extremely fresh into his pro career, and if he can prove he belongs in a league with grown men by shining in his first opportunity with the Marlies, it will look good on his resume and put him at the top of the list of call-up considerations.

The goal: Make the Maple Leafs out of training camp

While Cowan was given a reasonable shot to crack the Maple Leafs’ roster last season, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t ready for full-time NHL action, so the team sent him back to junior where he rightfully succeeded. This season, the odds will be against him again, considering the abundance of bottom-six forwards the Leafs have, but he’ll still be given every chance to make the team if he proves to them he’s worthy of a job.

The goal for a player in Cowan’s position should always be to make the NHL team. After all, if you play like you’re destined for the AHL, you’re going to be destined for the AHL. Putting the team in a position where they have a legitimate decision to make in terms of who to trade so he can stay on the roster would be a great problem that I’m sure all parties would welcome, and it all starts with a good training camp.