Easton Cowan

Last Season

Eleven goals and 18 assists in 66 games — 29 points, minus-five, at 14:43 a night with 45 penalty minutes. His first professional season.

He turned 21 in May.

The Finesse Game

A hundred and thirty-nine unblocked attempts, eleven goals, median 29 feet with 37 per cent from inside twenty and 23 per cent from beyond forty.

That is a first-year forward shooting from where he is permitted rather than where he wants to be, which is the normal shape and the thing that changes with strength.

Eighteen assists in fifteen minutes a night is a genuine rate and the more encouraging half of the page.

The Physical Game

Six foot even, 190, and he plays with a real edge — forty-five penalty minutes in his first season is a high rate and it comes from a player who does not back away from anything.

He is not strong enough yet to win the exchanges he starts. Two summers will fix a good deal of that.

The Intangibles

Forty-six point six per cent of the expected goals, 22nd percentile, and 44.7 per cent of the shot attempts, tenth, across 847 minutes.

Those are poor numbers and on this club they are close to average — every Toronto skater finished under 48.9 per cent, so a rookie sitting in the middle of that group has told you very little.

Nine points in his last ten, three of them goals. He is 21, a twenty-eighth overall pick, and the only forward under twenty-three on the roster who plays. This club needs him to be more than a fourth-liner.