20-year-old rookie Easton Cowan had himself a nice camp for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and earned himself a call-up to
20-year-old rookie Easton Cowan had himself a nice camp for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and earned himself a call-up to the big club in advance of opening night earlier this week. But he wound up getting a bird’s eye view of the game from the press box, rather than an in-your-face NHL indoctrination.
So just when will the Leafs’ top prospect make his National Hockey League debut? Head coach Craig Berube is playing his cards close to the vest. He knows he has a big decision to make, but he’s keeping it a mystery for now.
Craig Berube was coy on when Easton Cowan will make his NHL debut pic.twitter.com/viie0gSpWA
— TheLeafsNation (@TLNdc) October 10, 2025
Is Cowan ready for his NHL debut, coach?
“Well, he’s close. He’s got a great attitude, he works hard, he had a good practice today,” said Berube. “That’s decisions that we have to discuss and make, and right now we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Easton Cowan is ‘close’ to his NHL debut, per head coach Craig Berube
Yet, despite the coach’s praise of Cowan, the youngster was not on one of the regular forward lines at practice on Friday. He did, however, make an appearance on the power play, rotating through on the second unit in place of Nick Robertson.
Berube continued with more compliments for the Leafs’ first-rounder in 2023 (28th overall selection), but cautioned that we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves:
Team’s first. And I love Cowan. We all do. He’s going to be a good Leaf, I’ll tell you that… He’s going to be a good hockey player, and he is a good hockey player. But the team is the most important thing, and we gotta make decisions. And they don’t always please everybody.
To borrow from Tom Petty, Cowan knows that The Waiting is the hardest part. In the meantime, he said he learned plenty just watching from the press box on opening night.
The bottom line that everyone agrees on is that Cowan needs to play. A lot. This is a developmental year for him, and sitting in the press box, or even just playing nine or 10 minutes a game on the fourth line won’t do a lot for his development.
Cowan helped lead the London Knights to back-to-back OHL titles in his last two years in junior hockey. He dominated the playoffs this past spring with 13 goals and 39 points in 17 games.
In the end, Toronto has up to nine games to test the kid’s mettle in the NHL before burning a year of his entry-level contract. Like the coach said numerous times: Decisions, decisions.
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