If the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to give Easton Cowan a shot this upcoming season, he may have a hard time finding a spot according to The Athletic's Joshua Kloke.
Kloke, in his recent article regarding whether or not Cowan can crack the Maple Leafs roster, the analyst was not too keen on the team's top prospect making it out of camp, and the logjam up front is going to cause him a bit of a headache:
"The Leafs have 14 bona fide NHL forwards on their roster right now," Kloke wrote. "Whether the likes of David Kampf, Nick Robertson and Calle Jarnkrok are on the opening-night roster is up for debate. Even if Treliving moves on from one or two players before camp, though, every other player has far more pro hockey experience than Cowan.
To a Leafs coaching staff and management group that favour veterans, the stacked depth chart matters. That leaves Cowan with an uphill battle."
"Toronto has a roster constructed for the present, not the future."
Cowan did his best to impress coaches and management during the first game of the Prospect Showcase against the Senators on Saturday, recording an assist on Jacob Quillan's goal.
The forward recently commented on how he's feeling heading into the season, and his confidence and growth (literally) is giving him a real shot at making the team:
"My mind’s pretty free right now. I’ve got no worries. I know I’ll be playing somewhere in Toronto this year. And obviously I want to play in the NHL, but I’ve just got to have a good mindset and keep it free.
I’ve got to be a worker, I’ve got to be a hound, get pucks in, get pucks out, play simple; because me and the Leafs organization know that if I do that, my offense will take over. So I just have to focus on defense first, and the offense will come.”
It sounds like Cowan is wise beyond his years and understands that playing an overall and complete game will give him more of a shot under Craig Berube than strictly being a one-trick pony.
Cowan dominated the OHL during his time there, with 220 points in 185 games (84 goals, 136 assists) as well as capturing OHL MVP, Playoff MVP, winning two OHL Championships and capping it off with a Memorial Cup this past year.
Knowing the hard work he has ahead of him, Cowan is clearly aware of what Kloke informed us of, that being the intense competition for one of the team's coveted last roster spots.
But if anyone has a competitive fire to them it's Toronto's top prospect and he's ready to light it up; whenever that ends up being.