The Toronto Maple Leafs may have started the season off slowly, but they are surging. They smacked the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 last night and have won four of their last five games. Paramount in these games has been the emergence of Easton Cowan. With two goals in that time, Cowan has cemented himself as a top-six forward in the lineup. And while his numbers do look good, it’s the details in his game that set him apart.
On ice results
Through 19 games this year, Cowan has three goals and five assists. While not a stat line that will blow you away, it still puts him in the top-20 in the rookie scoring race by ppg. However, many of these numbers are conditioned by a slower start to the season. Unlike the Anaheim Ducks’ Beckett Sennecke or Montreal Canadiens’ Ivan Demidov, Cowan has only played 19 games this year, and more than that, Cowan is much more than a scorer.
Cowan has also had excellent underlying numbers, which should translate to more production down the line. Per 60 minutes of ice time, Cowan sits fourth on the team in individual shot attempts, averaging nearly 14 in that timeframe. What is even more impressive is that many of those are scoring chances, with Cowan averaging 10.3 per 60 minutes. This level of production is exceptionally high, behind only Auston Matthews and John Tavares.
Impressively, Cowan is one of the top players on the team in drawing penalties. He averages 1.51 penalties drawn per 60 minutes of ice time, second only to Max Domi. It’s easy to forget that he’s a rookie.
Cowan’s production away from the puck
But what is more impressive than his numbers and production is the maturity with which he plays. Cowan always seems to be a step ahead of the other players on the ice, beating guys to the puck. With rookies, and especially in the last decade, so many lack the willingness or skill to battle in the corners and come out successful. It’s a hard task to accomplish when you are younger and smaller than many defencemen in the league, but it is impressive to see a high-skill guy like Cowan go into the corners, battle hard, and come away with the puck as often as he does.
While he does only have eight points, if you watch the games, you know that number is smaller than it should be. He’s constantly buzzing around the net and creating chances. In the last five games, Cowan has nine scoring chances himself at 5v5, and it just felt like he was inches away so often. The goals will come for him.
Cowan is a quick player offensively, but what is really nice is how he doesn’t cheat up the ice on a breakout. He supports the play on the breakout, working to get the puck out of his own zone reliably in transition, then tracking back well on defence when the puck is going the other way. What more can you ask for from a future star player? How many times did we beg and plead for the core four to show up defensively before they finally did?
Is he really this team’s most important rookie since Matthews?
With all due respect to all the rookies that came before, the Leafs have needed a player like Cowan forever. Not only is he an excellent playmaker and creator, but his defensive play and speed also make him such an effective player both with and without the puck.
The only player that comes close as a comparable is Matthew Knies. It’s hard to compare the two, as they play such different game styles, but if we were building a brand-new team today, and you could only choose one, it would have to be Cowan. Not only is he a more versatile threat as both a scorer and a playmaker, but I’d argue his upside is higher.
This is not a knock on Knies at all, who is a fantastic player and one of the most effective young power forwards in the game today. Still, the relentlessness and pace with which Cowan plays the game, and his ability to constantly be in the right place at the right time, are such key differentiators. Cowan has the potential to be a better version of Mitch Marner in a year or two- and one who actually shows up in the playoffs. What more can you want?
The Leafs have needed a player to show up this season to turn things around, and Cowan has been that guy. It’s still early, but to see him producing this way at the NHL level, after having fought his way through obstacles at every level of his career, makes him the most effective Leafs rookie in nearly a decade.
This is what we hoped for and needed from Nick Robertson but, after 5 or so years, he’s barely in the lineup, not as good as Cowan already and shown to not have that potential. Meanwhile, he’s kind of been a pain to deal with and distraction for the last 2 years.