{"id":495244,"date":"2026-03-09T19:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/495244\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T19:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:58:19","slug":"maple-leafs-craig-berube-plans-on-using-easton-cowan-as-much-as-i-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/495244\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs’ Craig Berube plans on using Easton Cowan ‘as much as I can’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Maple Leafs finally appear ready to let Easton Cowan take the ball and run with it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or, in this case for the 20-year-old rookie, the puck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI plan on using Cowboy as much as I can, if it\u2019s warranted and he\u2019s going, I\u2019ll move him around,\u201d Leafs coach Craig Berube said after practice on Monday. \u201cI think he has done some really good things. I love his energy and his ability to transport a puck up the ice. He makes some good plays, I\u2019ll tell you that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust keep working with him about managing his game. There\u2019s times where he can make better decisions with the puck and be a little harder on things.\u201d<\/p>\n

New opportunities<\/p>\n

With the departures of Bobby McMann, Nicolas Roy and Scott Laughton before the National Hockey League trade deadline last week<\/a>, the Leafs are running with a minimum number of 12 forwards, provided there is not a late recall from the Toronto prior to the road game on Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

It means there\u2019s no reason for Cowan to come out the lineup in the final 18 games of the regular season, unless he gets injured.<\/p>\n

Against the Canadiens, Cowan will start on what has the potential to be a youthful energy line with Jacob Quillan at centre and Nick Robertson on the right.<\/p>\n

While Berube acknowledged that the line came together because of where he is using other forwards \u2014 specifically Max Domi back to the wing with Auston Matthews<\/a> and Matthew Knies \u2014 he does have a clear vision for Cowan.<\/p>\n

Berube wants to see Cowan take better advantage of his ability to move the puck.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that wants the puck,\u201d Berube said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that will take that puck and, coming out of your own end, and he\u2019ll get it up the ice for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

tkoshan@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

X: @koshtorontosun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Maple Leafs finally appear ready to let Easton Cowan take the ball and run with it. Or,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[532,3819,825,8450,5,3082,20,5172,797,890,21,151,4,2779,1337,929,66,31,5171],"class_list":["post-495244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-auston-matthews","tag-bobby-mcmann","tag-craig-berube","tag-easton-cowan","tag-hockey","tag-jacob-quillan","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-matthew-knies","tag-max-domi","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-nick-robertson","tag-nicolas-roy","tag-scott-laughton","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-torontomapleleafs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116200991117851494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}