The Toronto Maple Leafs have been active this offseason, and a young forward could be in line for a massive role this season.
Easton Cowan is one of the Maple Leafs’ top young players, and he just completed his first full NHL season. He showed some flashes of being a top-six forward, and NHL analyst Jonas Siegel of The Athletic believes he’s the dark horse to fill a top-six role and take a massive step forward.
“The definite dark horse in this bunch,” Siegel wrote. “Cowan didn’t get much of a chance with Matthews last season — only 100-ish minutes — but showed flashes of something when he did as a puck-hounding, playmaking sidekick. He could be a fit on a wide variety of top-line combinations. That Knies–Matthews-Cowan combo got only 56 minutes, but crushed it (61 percent expected goals). I think Cowan will be a regular in the top six by the end of next season. A 20-goal, 40-point campaign seems entirely within his reach. His per-82 game pace as a rookie: 14 goals and 36 points.”
It’s a positive prediction from Siegel, as if Cowan can take a spot in the top six, or on the top line with Auston Matthews, it will make the roster deeper, as it will allow William Nylander to play on the second line.
Cowan recorded 11 goals and 18 assists for 29 points in 66 games last season.
How Might Maple Leafs Forward Group Look?
Toronto has plenty of options on how it can deploy its forward group.
If the Maple Leafs use Cowan on the top line, the forward group could look something like this:
- McKenna – Matthews – Cowan
- Knies – Tavares – Nylander
- Knies – Paul – Roslovic
- Blueger – Sissons – Duhaime
Yet, Cowan could easily swap with Roslovic and form a checking line with Knies and Paul. Regardless, new Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller has options on how can delpoy the roster, and GM John Chayka feels like the team is much better now than they were last season.
“I think we got a lot done. Full credit to the team,” Chayka said on July 1. “We needed to make some significant changes to the roster construction, I’d say. As I said, we had some roles we needed to fill, and we needed to create some depth. Certainly, through the spine of our team now, we feel a lot better about our center position through the defense.
“Obviously, we added Raddysh a little earlier, so it doesn’t feel like the free-agent piece, but it truly was. Now, our portfolio of goalies, we feel great about. Any time you can enter a season feeling better about the “spine,” it makes you feel like you have a baseline you can build off of.”
The Maple Leafs’ big offseason moves are likely done.
Toronto’s Active Offseason
Since Chayka took over as the Maple Leafs’ GM, he has overhauled their roster.
Toronto’s offseason moves are as follows:
- Win the draft lottery, select Gavin McKenna first overall.
- Trade Joseph Woll, Simon Benoit to Flyers for Samuel Ersson, Emil Andrae, 2026 3rd-round pick.
- Sign-and-trade for Darren Raddysh, eight-year, $68M deal.
- Trade Ersson to the Senators for a 2027 fifth-round pick.
- Trade Brandon Carlo to the Blues for 73rd and 76th overall picks in 2026 NHL Draft.
- Deals Nick Robertson to the Penguins for a 2028 fourth-round pick.
- Sign Bobrovsky to a three-year, $21M deal.
- Signs Jack Roslovic to a two-year, $8M deal.
- Inks Colton Sissons to a two-year, $8.5M deal.
- Sign Teddy Blueger to a two-year, $5M deal.
- Signs Brandon Duhaime to a three-year, $7.8M deal.
- Sign Zack MacEwen to a two-year, $1.75M deal.
- Acquire Nick Paul from Lightning for Dennis Hildeby, 2028 3rd, and 2027 4th.
- Sign Gavin McKenna to ELC.
- Signs Emil Andrae to a two-year, $3.1 million deal.
Maple Leafs ‘Dark Horse’ Gets Positive Prediction Ahead of Season