NHL Prospect Roundup: Maple Leafs’ Easton Cowan is making magic – again

Credit: Kalvin Taylor

It’s been 345 days since Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan failed to get on the scoresheet during an OHL regular season game.

With the overtime winner against Owen Sound on Sunday, the London Knights star extended his scoring streak to 46 games. He’s nine games away from tying Doug Gilmour’s 55-game point streak in 1982-83.

Cowan isn’t blowing the doors off, by any means. He’s third in team scoring with 12 points in 10 games, putting him on a 73-point pace. He’ll miss games when he joins Canada for his second World Juniors in December, so he’ll need to pick it up if he’s going to surpass his 96-point breakout season from 2023-24. But if you look deeper at his play, he’s even more aggressive and his shot looks even more lethal. A 50-goal season is definitely not out of the question here.

Cowan spent most of the NHL preseason with the Maple Leafs, with some wondering if he’d start the season with the club. Instead, he was sent back down to the OHL, where prioritizing playing time and working on his two-way game was paramount. I can say that the Cowan we’re seeing now already looks more dangerous at both ends of the ice than the Cowan we saw explode offensively a year ago.

Will we see Cowan in the NHL next season? Don’t bet against it right now.

OHL

– To keep things in London, Sam Dickinson is on pace for 40 goals and 95 points this season. He had a hat-trick against Barrie last month and has nine points in his last five games with the Knights. Like Cowan, Dickinson seems primed to join Canada’s World Junior team next month. Dickinson is one of the best players in the entire OHL, and it’s incredible to think that the San Jose Sharks were able to snag him with their second pick in the first round. Dickinson has all the makings of a top-pairing blueliner – he’s big, strong, skilled and so smart.

WHL

– Philadelphia Flyers fans desperately need positive news on the goaltending front. Yegor Zavragin is having one heck of a year in the KHL, and Carson Bjarnason is having a great season with the Brandon Wheat Kings. He has a .924 save percentage through eight games as he looks to secure the starting gig for Canada’s World Junior team. This past weekend, Bjarnason stopped all 33 shots sent his way by a Medicine Hat Tigers team led by NHL leading scorer Gavin McKenna to mark one of the best performances of his WHL career. Keep a close eye on Bjarnason, Flyers Nation.

QMJHL

– The Carolina Hurricanes bet high on 5-foot-8 forward Justin Poirier because they believed in his shooting ability. Here we are, 15 games into the season, and Poirier has 16 goals and 28 points while hitting everything that moves. That’s the thing that drew him to me last year – he scored at a crazy rate and wasn’t afraid of physical competition. Look for him to score 60-plus goals, 120 points and 100 penalty minutes this year. His numbers are a bit warped thanks to scoring 15 points in his last four games, but he simply can’t be stopped.

NCAA

– Thought Jacob Fowler was good last year? The Boston College goaltender is 5-1 with two shutouts and a .943 save percentage through six games. Fowler hasn’t been too busy this year, having not faced more than 30 shots in a game yet. But he started the season with a shutout over a strong Michigan State University team and has looked as solid in the crease as we’ve seen from him. Fowler is one of the Montreal Canadiens‘ top prospects, and while the competition will only get tougher as the year wears on, I’m happy with what I’ve seen.

KHL

– Could Maxim Beryozkin join the Edmonton Oilers in a bottom-six role next year? He has 19 points in 23 games with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and is on pace for 55 points – a huge step up from his 30-point output last year. At 6-foot-4 and 212 pounds, Beryozkin isn’t afraid to use his frame to knock players down and rush to the net. He’s not overly quick, but he likes to chase guys down and throw the body. His KHL deal ends this spring, so we could see the 23-year-old make the move to North America in hopes of carving out an NHL career.

– Ilya Nabokov was one of the top goaltending prospects in 2024, landing the Colorado Avalanche to take him as a 21-year-old triple overager. While wins haven’t been as easy to come by this year, he has three shutouts and a .918 save percentage on a mid-pack Metallurg Magnitogorsk squad. His shot counts can be a bit all over the place – one game, he’ll face 45 shots. The next, 19. But when he’s hot, he gives Magnitogorsk a chance to win. His KHL deal ends at the end of the season, so we could see him play in the AHL next season.

SHL

– The Detroit Red Wings seem high on Axel Sandin-Pellikka, and he’s looking like quite the prospect. He’s up to 14 points in 17 games with Skelleftea AIK in the top Swedish league, putting him on pace for around 45 points. That would be more than double what he had last year. He’s currently leading all defenders in scoring, and is the only U-20 defenseman with more than five points. ASP has top-four potential, and it might not be long until he’s patrolling the blueline at Little Caesars Arena.

ECHL

– It’s not a big sample size, but Jesper Vikman has looked good with the Tahoe Knight Monsters. He’s 3-0-1, allowing two or fewer goals in all three of his wins. The Vegas Golden Knights prospect has been one of the Knight Monsters’ top players in their inaugural year, already improving on what was a difficult rookie season with Savannah last year. The 22-year-old is a bit of a longshot to be an NHLer, but the Swede is looking stout.

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NHL Prospect Roundup: Maple Leafs’ Easton Cowan is making magic – again

OHL

WHL

QMJHL

NCAA

KHL

SHL

ECHL

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