Trevor Williamson, a longtime trainer for Leafs prospect Easton Cowan, thinks his client is ready to appear in NHL games this season. That is what he told TSN’s Mark Masters in an exclusive interview going in depth on how Cowan operates on and off the ice in preparation for the upcoming campaign.

Williamson, who works for Epic Sports Centre located in London, Ontario, says that even if Cowan doesn’t crack the Leafs roster he is bound to have an even better year than the year prior because he has gotten stronger.

“It’s so hard to kind of guess and say where he’s going to end up, but just the size that he’s put on, he’s definitely capable,” Williamson said. “His maturity is there, his thought process is there, his attitude is 100 percent there, and his work ethic is going to be with the top guys on the team no matter where he ends up. I think he definitely could, he’s ready. The skill, the maturity, the decision-making. Mark Vokes is our on-ice skill development guy with Epic, and he is very impressed with Easton, very impressed. Picks up everything. We work on a lot of, different skills, different tools, and he’s like ‘Easton just picks things up very quickly and if he’s bad at it, he will work harder than anybody to kind of get good at it.’ So yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

It will surely excite Leafs fans to hear that Cowan has been putting in the work this offseason to give himself a chance at making the Leafs out of training camp. He has even skipped the London Knights’ training camp to maximize his conditioning in preparation for the Leafs camp. There is no guarantee that it will come to fruition as he is eligible to return to the Knights for another season, but it won’t be because of his work ethic and maturity because it sounds like he is giving it everything he’s got and has the right mindset about it.

Part of what has driven his motivation is how his OHL season ended. Despite being the team’s top scorer in the playoffs and getting to the Memorial Cup Final, his MVP campaign did not have a storybook ending with the Knights losing to the Saginaw Spirit. Williamson said that the shortcoming in that critical game has fueled Cowan’s hunger to get better and stronger.

“When he came back, you could see it on his face. He was rattled, so sad about it,” he said. “But also he used that every single day. It was kind of like an ongoing joke throughout the summer where he would just be like, ‘Little inches every single day are going to make the difference of that.’ He used that for fuel. He wants to win. He hated how we lost. I mean we all did, but you could tell that deeply motivated him.”

That is the kind of mentality that is easily going to win over more Leafs fans to root for him to crack the NHL lineup and become a mainstay. Cowan has the drive to improve his craft and using a tough loss to fuel his desire to win would certainly be a welcome addition to a Leafs roster that would surely benefit from having a young player like him in the mix for more than just the nine-game sample.

It also helps that Cowan has taken the time to study some of the best in the NHL in terms of how they go about themselves and their play style. Williamson brought up three interesting players when asked by Masters if Cowan reminds him of anyone.

“Travis Konecny was a big guy. They’re both kind of similar areas. And growing up, [Cowan] really idolized, Travis Konecny,” he said. “Guys like Bo Horvat, because we got to train him for a long time while he was still in London and Boone Jenner.”

“He models himself after them, he sees how they conduct themselves, and he’s just like, ‘I want to be the guy. I want to make the NHL. I don’t want to just be good in the OHL and then coast.’ He never wants to coast, that’s a big thing.”

Considering how many Leafs fans have been clamouring for the team to trade for the likes of Konecny and Jenner in recent years, they will be happy to hear that Cowan has modelled his game after them. Given his skillset and capabilities, it is possible he could reach a higher level than Konecny and Jenner ever could and that is a tantalizing thought.

He has long had what Williamson described as a ‘farm boy ethic,’ going back to the duo’s first meeting back at a Knights summer workout nearly. At a session attended by the likes of Connor McMichael, Robert Thomas, and Evan Bouchard, Cowan stood out and made a strong impression with his hard work and attitude.

That has carried over as the years have gone on where Cowan has been a role model to his teammates in the gym, how he takes care of his body off the ice, and his overall maturity. Williamson thinks all of that combined with an eagerness to put in the work will take him far in his hockey career.

“I think he’s at that stage where he’s starting to put on that size, that muscle, and all that hard work, that hard training is really paying off physically,” he said. “He just wants it more than a lot of guys that I know. He enjoys the process thoroughly. He shows up, he always has a smile on. He’s like, ‘What are we doing today? What are we doing?’ When you enjoy the process, it makes it so much more easier to buy in and easier to enjoy things and you notice the results you’re getting. His attitude is ‘I want to win and I want to be the best.”