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Toronto Maple Leafs training camp last September had a few surprises, including 2023 first round pick Easton Cowan sticking around longer than expected and playing in a few exhibition games. After a season in which he scored 96 points, made the 2024 Team Canada World Junior Championship squad, won the OHL regular season and playoff MVP, and reached the Memorial Cup Final, the expectations for the pesky winger are understandably high.
But unfortunately, because of the current CHL agreement with the NHL, the 19-year-old has limited options for 2024-25. Cowan does not turn 20 until May, 2025, making him ineligible to play in the American Hockey League. That means he can either play with the Leafs or return to the London Knights.
“(Cowan is) going to make a push,” Leafs Asst GM Hayley Wickenheiser said on Wednesday. “(It’s) always hard to take that jump from junior, that’s a big step, but he’s proven everybody wrong at every level, so I don’t put it past him"
The Leafs will be open to the youngster challenging for a spot on the 23-man roster for more than a few reasons, including his entry-level salary giving them a bit of cap relief, but the most important thing for the club is what will give Cowan the best chance of developing into the best NHL player he can be.
There have been a number of young players who have faced the situation that Cowan will go through next season. Seattle top pick Shane Wright and Buffalo first-rounder Matthew Savoie are most recent examples. The Kraken spent most of the first half of the 2022-23 season sitting the fourth overall pick for long stretches or sending him down to AHL Coachella Valley on conditioning stints before loaning him to Team Canada for World Junior camp in December.
In January, he was assigned to the Windsor Spitfires and finished off the year in the OHL. Last season, Wright played all but eight games in the AHL.
Savoie (Cowan’s teammate on Team Canada) was injured in Sabres training camp in September and went to AHL Rochester on a conditioning stint. He was recalled in November, played one game in the NHL, and was sent back to the WHL for the remainder of the season.
Artur Akhtyamov makes a big save and Easton Cowan converts at the opposite end in some mini 2-on-2 drills pic.twitter.com/Zwmzn2s6fU
In both of these instances, we will not know for years whether not playing regularly for long stretches affected these players adversely. In a perfect world, NHL clubs would have a waiver to allow one player to play at a higher level instead of going back to a level where he has little left to prove, but Easton Cowan’s status on the Leafs roster may be an ongoing question starting in October.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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