TORONTO — It is a few hours before his fifth and likely final pre-season game, and Easton Cowan is admitting that the stress is weighing on him.
The affable playmaker they call “Cowboy” came into 2023’s training camp shooting from the hip. He scored. He laughed. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Mostly confidence from the constant stream of public praise from coaches and his (temporary) established NHL teammates. Cowan’s standout exhibition performance last fall supplied fans with ammunition against all those draft critics who dubbed the Mount Brydges, Ont., native a reach at 28th overall.
As an 18-year-old, Cowan then rode the momentum from his first big-league taste to a 96-point OHL MVP campaign and a Memorial Cup All-Star Team nod.
So focused was Cowan on making the jump to pros after just two full seasons in major junior that he skipped London Knights training camp to drill down on the real dream.
Yet Cowan wanted to make the cut so bad, he hasn’t been playing quite as free.
We see it. He feels it.
“This year, I’m a bit older and stronger and feel like my games have been better, so I’m just putting pressure on myself,” Cowan told Sportsnet.ca Thursday in a rink-side conversation.
“It’s definitely been different. And it’s been tougher, to be honest.”
Part of that might be the challenge of winning over a new coach, Craig Berube, whose system demands hard checking, relentless defence and straight lines. Or the glut of winger competition — veteran PTOs Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz, a more seasoned and desperate Nick Robertson (more on him later), KHL-experienced Nikita Grebenkin — and absence of power-play time.
Plenty of it though, according to Cowan, is in his own head.
The kid is only 19, remember. He’s never had to hurdle expectations like this, and they’re mostly self-imposed.
“Just in the games, I feel like I’m playing a bit more defence. I feel like my offence hasn’t been all there yet, but I feel like it’ll just translate. If I play good defence, that should translate to good offence,” Cowan says.
“I’m just putting the pressure on myself, I think. Obviously, [Berube] wants us to play defence, but in the offensive zone, you just do you. So, I’ve just been putting a bit too much pressure myself. A couple days off (with teammates in Muskoka) really helped me, and I’m ready to go.”
Cowan would chip in a power-play assist in Thursday’s 2-0 pre-season win over a legit Detroit Red Wings lineup.
He also fumbled some pucks and, in short, didn’t look NHL ready.
Which is OK. He’s a prospect. A good one.
“Listen, he does what he does with the puck and makes plays. He’s very good at that. He’s a good player, offensive player,” Berube says. “He’s got to be responsible defensively and manage the game more than anything.”
Cowan knows this: “I definitely got a lot more to prove, for sure.”
John Tavares says Cowan’s struggles to adapt are part of the natural learning curve.
“It’s easy as a young player to think about last year and how it went and compare those things. He’s learning things are different. It’s a new start,” Tavares says.
“He just loves the game and loves to compete. He wants to be here and is doing everything he can to make that happen. He’s got a great future ahead of him and for us. Just love having him around. His energy is infectious. Loves talking about the game and being around it.”
To Tavares’s point, Cowan says he’s been paying attention to how his Bracebridge golf partner Auston Matthews carries himself. How the captain can exude quiet confidence without coming off cocky. Cowan aspires to have that level of assuredness one day.
He’s been chatting plenty with fellow London stars Mitch Marner and Max Domi, too.
“It’s never easy to make that jump, especially when you’re going to a team that has as many older guys as we do,” Domi says.
“He’s in the gym every day. He’s here early. He stays late. He’s learning about nutrition and all that stuff. You see him eating big meals and whatnot. So, he looks great. He was a mature kid last year, but he’s grown up even more. So, we’re all cheering for him. He looks great, and he’s getting better every day.”
Cowan is prepared to get better in London, even if that wasn’t his first choice.
“It’s all about what they think is right for development,” Cowan says.
“If they send me back, they sent me back. If I stay up, that’s obviously been my goal since I started playing hockey — to make the NHL. But if they don’t think I’m ready, then I’m not gonna dwell on it. Go back to junior and have fun there.”
We’d argue that the best place for Cowan’s development is the AHL. Alas, that’s not an option. But the player shoots down the idea that he can’t further hone his craft amongst his fellow teenagers in the OHL.
He’ll welcome another shot at hoisting the Memorial Cup that eluded the Knights in 2024. (Cowan on Marner: “After his draft year, he went back to junior too — and he won it all.”)
He’ll focus on his defending and checking.
And he’ll try… dropping the mitts more often?
“I feel like adding more sandpaper in my game, maybe fighting a bit more, and just finishing my checks,” he says.
Wait.
The 34-goal, 62-point, 5-foot-11 guy wants to work on his fighting?
“Yeah. I’ve had a couple fights, but I feel like fighting opens up more space for you on the ice. Not being dumb with it, jumping guys. But when the time’s right, time’s right. So, I wouldn’t say I’m really focused on fighting, but if it’s there, I feel like it can open up more space,” Cowan explains.
“You know, having that versatility. Like Domi. He can make plays. He can score. But he likes to get in there, and he can fight too, so just seeing that’s been pretty cool.”
Robertson is on the team — put it in ink
He couldn’t force a trade away from the team, but he can force his way onto the team.
Four games, five goals. Three of them game winners.
With Toronto’s brass declaring training camp an open competition for fringe forwards, Robertson has made it undeniable that he deserves to be in Wednesday’s opening lineup.
It’ll be the first time since getting drafted in 2019 that Robertson has made the cut out of camp.
The 23-year-old is feeling it, producing the only two goals Thursday in Detroit while chipping in on both special teams.
“It’s great,” Robertson said. “I’m fortunate to have the pucks go in. You build off that. You feel more comfortable shooting the puck.”
And Treliving should feel more than comfortable starting the season with a dirt-cheap sniper ($875,000) who has shown great maturity since putting his contractual stalemate to bed.
Head down. Play hard. Produce. Make yourself impossible to reject.
Laine buries the hatchet
Montreal Canadiens fans may still be fuming that a non-NHLer, Toronto’s Cedric Paré, subtracted their big off-season addition with a knee-on-knee check in an otherwise meaningless game last week.
But Laine himself won’t be holding a grudge.
“I don’t think anybody’s trying to hurt anybody. Hockey’s a fast game, and I kind of put myself in that situation a little bit trying to make a stop,” Laine, who will not require surgery, told reporters Thursday.
“It’s just an unfortunate collision, and he texted me afterward, which I respect him for.”
Stolarz shines in first full game
The Maple Leafs’ plan was to give their No. 2 goalie, Anthony Stolarz, the final pre-season road start against a loaded Red Wings group and No. 1 Joseph Woll his dress rehearsal at home Saturday, with an eye toward starting Woll in Game 1.
Stolarz pitched a 30-save shutout against a legit NHL lineup, punctuated with a windmill glove save in tight on former teammate Vladimir Tarasenko.
“I think he added a little flair there to go with it,” chuckled Steven Lorentz, another Panther-turned-Leaf. “Vladdy came back to the bench with a smile there. Stolly gave it to him a bit, and I did too.”
Relaxed and controlled in the net, Stolarz’s final exhibition reminded that he’ll be giving Woll a run for the job this season.
With the Leafs’ schedule kicking off with a back-to-back, we might not have to wait long for the goalie debates to begin.
One-Timers: Potential centreman William Nylander was back skating on Tavares’s right wing Thursday at practice. “I mean, I don’t know where he’s gonna play,” said Calle Järnkrok, speaking for the rest of us…. Timothy Liljegren never fully gained the trust of the former coach, and he’s starting well behind the eight ball with the new one. He’s at risk of getting passed on the depth chart by Conor Timmins and/or Marshall Rifai, both of whom are easier to slide under the cap ceiling than the $3-million third-pairing righty.