Everything can change in the matter of a year and Easton Cowan is now viewed as the prized prospect of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ pool with a genuine shot of cracking the NHL roster this fall. Cowan dominated during the 2023-24 season for the OHL’s London Knights, winning OHL regular season and playoff MVP honours, before losing in the Memorial Cup Final. It’s somewhat unfamiliar territory for the Maple Leafs, who have struggled to develop in-house talent after the William Nylander-Mitch Marner-Auston Matthews picks.
Craig Berube is now overseeing the Maple Leafs’ bench and there are likely elements from his tenure with the St. Louis Blues that will carry over in Toronto. Player development is a component that is overseen by a fully staffed team and is considered to be a multidisciplinary element in some ways, but Berube’s inputs will matter quite a bit, and there may be some past precedent to draw from when assessing Cowan’s pro-readiness.
Thomas, like Cowan before him, starred for the venerated Knights program, helping the 2016 team win the Memorial Cup as a major junior rookie, operating as a defensive specialist. He was certainly more a known quantity during his draft year than Cowan was and recorded 16 goals and 66 points, before St. Louis selected Thomas with the 20th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft.
Two seasons removed from his NHL draft year, Thomas became a fixture with the Blues and this is the pathway the Maple Leafs likely envision for Cowan, who impressed the entire organization last fall and was one of the final cuts from training camp. During the 2018-19 playoffs, Thomas grew more comfortable as a playmaker and his transition to the pros was aided by Keith Tkachuk and his family, living with him during the 2019 playoff run. It wouldn’t be unfathomable for John Tavares to house Cowan during his rookie season, a role that he’s carried out for other players during his professional career before.
“For someone that young, to clearly stand out in a Game 7 from start to finish, was one of the best performances you have ever seen in the National Hockey League, in my opinion,” Keith Tkachuk said of Thomas’ two-assist performance against the Dallas Stars during their second-round series via Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com.
Thomas missed the majority of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final due to a wrist injury but he returned in time for the Blues to seal off the Boston Bruins, winning the franchise’s first-ever title in seven games. It was a banner rookie year and Thomas was merely scratching the surface of his potential. During the regular season, St. Louis controlled just under 55 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 when Thomas was on the ice — if Cowan can replicate anything close to this share during his rookie season, it would be a seismic victory for the Maple Leafs.
Lauded for his playmaking and defensive ability, Thomas hasn’t posted a negative goal differential at 5-on-5 throughout his six-year career. After being thrust onto a Cup-winning team two seasons after being drafted, Thomas has morphed into one of the NHL’s premier two-way forwards, while taking on larger offensive responsibility on a Blues team that is shedding off the remnants from its banner era. The parallels are in place for Cowan — if he can forge a secondary scoring punch while providing plus defensive-impact on a veteran-laden Maple Leafs team that has more pressure to win the Cup than any other team in the league, his 2024-25 campaign could be directly analogous to Thomas’ six years prior.
It’s not an exact comparison — no two players are directly alike to begin with and Cowan is almost certainly going to feature exclusively on the wing, at least to begin his NHL career. Cowan’s defensive responsibilities in Berube’s system will be different as a winger, rather than Thomas constantly surveying the ice and acting as an anchor in the three-zone scheme. It’s incumbent upon the Maple Leafs to be careful with Cowan, while realizing that his immediate impact as a plus-defender with top-end penalty killing acumen is a needed asset for a hyper-talented team that can’t get over the top in the summer.
One year removed from the 2023 NHL Draft, Cowan appears likely to be providing the best return on value relative to draft selection and could make an immediate impact for the Maple Leafs. Under Craig Berube’s tutelage, there’s a direct comparison to follow and if Easton Cowan can make a Robert Thomas-like impact during his rookie season, while displaying constant offensive improvement entering his prime, the Maple Leafs will be laughing to the bank, and perhaps to the Cup.
All stats from NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.
