On Tuesday, the Leafs announced Easton Cowan would be returned to the London Knights and on Wednesday it was made official. Cowan, who the Leafs drafted 28th overall in this year's entry draft, was a pleasant surprise during training camp as he built off of a strong showing at the Traverse City prospects tournament. He was not expected to make the Leafs' roster out of camp, but the Leafs felt he deserved to stick around camp until the very end based on the merit of his work.
Cowan returned to the London Knights' lineup on Thursday and wasted no time making an impact. Midway through the second period against Peterborough, Cowan picked up the puck along the boards to create a 2-on-1 where he showed off his shot, beating the goalie clean and giving the Knights a 1-0 lead. He finished with one goal, 10 shots on net, and took 14 faceoffs, despite being listed as a winger on the game sheet.
Cowan isn't the only Leafs prospect that was returned to his junior team with something to prove as Brandon Lisowsky was returned to Saskatoon after a much shorter stint at training camp. Lisowsky was a seventh round pick of the Leafs in the 2022 entry draft and is on a torrid pace in the WHL with the Saskatoon Blades where he has 7 goals and 11 points in 7 games so far this season as he looks to continue his breakout trend from last season. Last season with the Blades, Lisowsky had 38 goals and 71 points in 65 games.
Along with Fraser Minten and others, the Leafs have slowly built up the prospect depth in their organization, in large part thanks to Kyle Dubas - though Wes Clark is also a key contributor in this department. Those prospects will not only help fill out roster spots for cheap in the coming years, but some of them may even become impact players for the team when all is said and done.
