Leafs Top 50 Prospects – Easton Cowan

The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL (Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, Matthew Knies), but the club under former GM’s Kyle Dubas and Brad Treliving, and new GM John Chayka have had different ideas of what kind of prospects they wanted to populate the organization with.

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As we’ve done on a yearly basis, we will be ranking the club’s top prospects over the upcoming weeks based on their progress in either the NCAA, CHL, Europe, ECHL, or AHL, and their potential to make the Leafs roster and make a contribution in the future.

Players are eligible for the list if they have not played more than 82 NHL games and are 25 years old or younger:

Leafs Prospect List

#50 – Blake Smith – D (Toronto – AHL)
#49 – Henrik Rybinski – F (Hershey – AHL)
#48 – Sawyer Boulton – F (Reading – ECHL, Lehigh Valley – AHL)
#47 – Cole McWard – D (Bridgeport – AHL, NY Islanders – NHL)
#46 – Rylan Fellinger – D (Flint – OHL)
#45 – Sam Stevens – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#44 – Brody Pepoy – F (Saginaw – OHL)
#43 – Matt Lahey – D (Michigan State – NCAA)
#42 – Yaroslav Fedoseyev – D (Chelyabinsk Clemet – VHL, Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
#41 – Cade Webber – D (Toronto – AHL)
#40 – Matthew Hlacar – F (Kitchener – OHL)
#39 – Will Belle – RW (US Nat’l Development Program)
#38 – Cooper Williams – C (Saskatoon – WHL)
#37 – Patriks Plumins – G (Zemgale – Latvia)
#36 – Chas Sharpe – D (Toronto – AHL)
#35 – Hayes Hundley – D (St. Thomas – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#34 – Hudson Malinoski – C (Providence – NCAA)
#33 – Joe Miller – C (Harvard – NCAA)
#32 – Juuso Ainasto – G (Jokerit Jr. – Finland)
#31 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev – C (Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
#30 – Mans Gudmundsson – D (Farjestads Jr. – Sweden)
#29 – Landon Sim – RW (Toronto – AHL)
#28 – Ryan Kirwan – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
#27 – Sam McCue – LW (Brantford/Ottawa – OHL)
#26 – Samuel Hlavaj – G (Iowa Wild – AHL)
#25 – Topi Niemela – D (Malmo – SHL)
#24 – Brandon Buhr – F (Union – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#23 – Borya Valis – RW (Toronto – AHL)
#22 – Vinny Borgesi – D (Northeastern – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
#21 – Ryan Tverberg – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#20 – Zac Olsen – F (Saskatoon – WHL)
#19 – Alexander Plesovskikh – LW (MHK Spartak Moskva – MHL, Moscow Spartak – KHL)
#18 – Roni Hirvonen – C (Karpat – SM-Liiga)
#17 – Timofei Obvintsev – G (Gornyak-UGMK – VHL)
#16 – Ethan MacKenzie – D (Edmonton – WHL)
#15 – Harry Nansi – C (Owen Sound – OHL)
#14 – Nick Moldenhauer – C (Michigan – NCAA)
#13 – Tyler Hopkins – C (Kingston/Guelph – OHL)
#12 – Noah Chadwick – D (Toronto – AHL)
#11 – Alexander Bilecki – D (Kitchener – OHL)
#10 – Luke Haymes – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#9 – Jacob Quillan – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#8 – Miroslav Holinka – C (Edmonton – WHL, Toronto – AHL)
#7 – William Villeneuve – D (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#6 – Victor Johansson – D (Leksands Jr., Oskarshamn IK – Sweden)
#5 – Tinus-Luc Koblar – C (Leksands IF Jr. – Sweden)
#4 – Artur Akhtyamov – G (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
#3 – Ben Danford – D (Oshawa/Brantford – OHL, Toronto – AHL)

#2 – Easton Cowan – F (Toronto – AHL, Toronto -NHL)

The Leafs left several observers scrambling for information and scratching their heads at the end of the first round at the 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville, when they selected Cowan out of the OHL’s London Knights.

The Mount Brydges, ON native finished third in OHL rookie scoring with 53 points (20 goals, 33 assists) and broke out for London in the 2023 OHL playoffs with 21 points (9 goals, 12 assists) in 20 games. His late run and output in the post-season put the Knights winger on the Leafs radar, who had a late first-round pick from the trade of Rasmus Sandin to Washington.

The Leafs scouting staff headed by Wes Clark uncovered a diamond in the rough, as Cowan had a season for the ages as an 18-year-old, scoring 96 points (34 goals, 62 assists) in 54 games, winning the OHL’s Most Valuable Player in the regular season and the playoffs, being named a CHL First Team All-Star and a spot on Team Canada for the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships.

The youngster hoped to make the NHL in 2024-25, but the Leafs opted to let him have another year in the OHL and another World Junior tournament to get him more experience. In the end, it was the right decision in terms of Cowan’s maturation, since the AHL was not an option, but his regular season with the Knights was not up to 2024 standards (29 goals, 40 assists in 46 games). He was part of an underachieving Canadian squad at the WJC in Ottawa. Cowan came to life in the OHL Playoffs and Memorial Cup, posting 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) in 17 playoff games, leading the Knights in scoring for the tournament, and was named the MVP.

Cowan achieved everything he could accomplish at the junior level, and made the Leafs out of training camp, but was misused by former head coach Craig Berube, playing at times on the fourth line, and being a healthy scratch surrounding the Olympic break. When Toronto was eliminated from the playoffs, the 21-year-old was elevated into the top six and accounted himself well, finishing the season with 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) in 66 games, but where he made his mark was after the Leafs season was complete.

Joining the AHL Marlies for the playoffs, Cowan finished third in team scoring with 18 points (8 goals, 10 assists) in 22 games and was a key contributor in their pursuit of a Calder Cup. With a Memorial Cup and Calder Cup title under his belt, the young winger’s next challenge is to establish himeself at the NHL level and add another championship to his portfolio.