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Maybe the shock of the first-round within the 2023 NHL Draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs used their first-round choose to take London Knights’ ahead Easton Cowan twenty eighth total. There was little or no questioning his total ability degree — he has a pure capability when he has the puck to open up the ice for himself and others, however his measurement and lack of OHL expertise had been two of the main query marks.
Still, Cowan made noise in his draft 12 months and with a group just like the London Knights who’ve a historical past of growing first-round NHL expertise, it appeared just like the Maple Leafs had been on to one thing that others won’t have seen.
Cowan bolstered that argument from day one in every of camp as one of many Maple Leafs’ remaining cuts to kick of the season and his return to the OHL got here with an offensive explosion that few anticipated from the 18-year-old.
Easton Cowan Has Excelled This Season
In London, he’s performed simply 49 video games for the Knights with 29 objectives and 79 factors to date. He’s averaging 1.61 factors per sport and if he performed the whole season — which he missed some video games whereas representing Canada on the World Junior Championship in late December — he can be on tempo for nearly 110 factors. That’s a serious leap kind his 53 factors final season.
He’s nonetheless on tempo for 96 factors this season and can absolutely go on a run within the playoffs when the Knights kick off their first spherical of the OHL postseason within the coming weeks.
As it stands, Cowan sits tenth within the OHL in scoring with each participant above him on the listing having performed not less than 50 video games to date — 5 greater than Cowan. Most, nonetheless are within the 54 to 57-game vary, displaying simply how spectacular his season has been up to now.
Easton Cowan’s Record Point Streak
What makes his season much more notable is his that he’s presently on a 27-game level streak, which is a London Knights document. That’s fairly spectacular contemplating who’s come by this group — together with Corey Perry, John Tavares, Patrick Kane amongst others.
The earlier document was held by former NHLer and Knights ahead Sergei Kostitsyn who had some extent in 25-straight video games throughout his tenure.
During the 27-game streak, Cowan has potted 20 objectives and 51 factors with 16 multi-point video games and eight video games wherein he had three or extra factors.
Related: 2024 NHL Draft – Forbes’ Top 96 February Rankings
Jason Bukala, who was as soon as the director of novice scouting for the Florida Panthers, spoke on Cowan with Sportsnet’s JD Bunkis and famous, “[Cowan]’d definitely be a top-10 pick in this draft cycle. He’s a top-six pick for me.”
Bukala went on to say, “Cowan is going to score more than Knies is going to score and he’s going to be Knies-like in the hard areas. He’s going to be tenacious, in the fights along the wall… He’s kind of like a modern day version of Darcy Tucker.”
Considering what he’s carried out this season, it’s exhausting to not assume that he’s going to get a nine-game search for the Maple Leafs to kick off the 2024-25 season.
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