Easton Cowan will attend Canada’s selection camp for the 2025 world junior team.
The Maple Leafs prospect, though, will be held out of on-ice activities for precautionary reasons, Hockey Canada announced on Monday morning.
In his last game with the London Knights before the start of camp, Cowan on Friday night was rocked with an open-ice hit by Oshawa Generals defenceman Zackary Sandhu during the second period of the Gens’ 5-3 win.
No penalty was assessed on the play and Cowan didn’t return to the game.
Earlier in the match, Cowan scored in the first period, extending his regular-season point streak to 56 games. That passed the Ontario Hockey League record of 55 games, set by Doug Gilmour with the Cornwall Royals during the 1982-83 season.
Because Gilmour’s streak came in a single season, the OHL recognizes it as the official record. Cowan’s streak started on Nov. 25, 2023, against the Barrie Colts.
Hockey Canada also announced on Monday that Generals forward Beckett Sennecke, an Anaheim Ducks prospect, has been added to the camp roster.
Canada’s selection camp gets underway on Tuesday at TD Place in Ottawa. The camp includes two games, on Thursday and Friday, against a team of Canadian university all-stars.
Cowan, who played for Canada at last year’s edition of the world junior championship in Sweden, has been considered a lock to make the roster for the tournament later this month in Canada’s capital.
In 20 games with the Knights, the 19-year-old forward has 28 points (15 goals and 13 assists). Cowan recently missed four games with a lower-body injury before he returned to the London lineup last Wednesday against Owen Sound.
Cowan’s development has been on an upward trajectory since the Leafs selected him in the first round of the 2023 National Hockey League draft, 28th overall. He will be expected to crack the Leafs roster in training camp next September.
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