Last night's game was the sort that makes you question the point of preseason games while being grateful for the new limit of four of them to come into play next year. We shall never speak of it again.

Instead of news about other teams for this Sunday, this is my take on the surprising performance by Easton Cowan in a role that usually isn't suitable for a rookie his age.

Easton Cowan

In his first preseason game Easton Cowan played with David Kämpf as a centre and Nick Robertson as the opposite winger and it took him more than a few shifts to settle into a role. He'd been practicing on the open wing on the John Tavares line, and that's a dramatically different concept of how you play offensively, one where Cowan needs to be a little more self-effacing in the shadow of Nylander's brighter glow. With Robertson as the scoring threat, Cowan learned to fit himself in, but the line didn't sing.

Next Cowan was used to complete this season's surprise grinder line. Scott Laughton with Steven Lorentz isn't new, they played together in the playoffs, but since Laughton was branded as bad last season, they were invisible to those who would not see. Now they're hard to miss, and Lorentz - Laughton - Cowan sings. It's a loud song, and a not as melodic as some others, but you sure can dance to it.

The Plan

So this is the proposition: Find a way to play Cowan in the NHL on the fourth line and we all get to watch him claw his way up the lineup in real time. If that sounds like Matt Knies, it should. He started out higher up with higher expectations, and he's met them, and this idea rests on the theory that Cowan can do the same trick.

Cowan is not Knies, and he lacks Knies' advantage of size. What that advantage is amounts to this: When he didn't know what to do, Knies could always go win a board battle, and he never looked outmatched taking a hit. This is largely, not completely, but largely about how viewers feel (those in coaching and those on the couch), and not substantive impacts on game outcomes. People get uncomfortable watching a player fail in a physical way in hockey in ways they don't if he's got stone hands and can't make a simple pass. Even if a player learns to turn the physical mismatch to their advantage, it makes people squirm. Ask Pontus Holmberg how that plays out.

Every other time Leafs fans have wanted the shiny prospect of the season to play on the fourth line you hear "why not?" and "roll four lines" and "skill guys", and on and on go the arguments that deliberately misunderstand the fourth line's job. They aren't there to roll out like this is the SHL and teenagers can get by on shooting skill. The Leafs fourth line is there to bang around a bit, control the puck a lot, get into the offensive zone if they can, and get the hell off when they do.

The getting the hell off part requires – most of the time – an offensive zone faceoff. That's the real job distilled to it's boring essence – get a shot on net that the opposing goalie freezes. And if Cowan plays with Laughton, who used to be a better player in his youth, and Lorentz, who has a little bit of scoring ability, then sometimes, that faceoff will be at centre ice. And the tantalizing value add is that the second unit power play would have one guy better than Matias Maccelli on it. The hope is that Cowan won't turn the puck over shooting from the weeds like Nick Robertson does.

This is a real and possibly viable plan and not just shiny toy syndrome. I say possibly because a couple of preseason games against teams missing their key players is not the ultimate test. We have to have a talk about waivers now, but before we get into how you get Cowan on the NHL roster, there is a point to be made that is boring and irritating to the fun narrative: he needs some things the AHL offers him.

The Other Plan

Cowan benefited hugely from his return to the OHL. His season in junior hockey is why we're having this conversation seriously already. What he could get in the AHL this year is more refinement from a hell of a lot more ice time than he'd get in the NHL. He'd play more special teams, and he'd play a role that is expanded well beyond the straight-ahead simple game the LLC line would be tasked with.

A season in the AHL for Cowan would be about realizing the shape his ultimate NHL-level job will be when he is actually at his peak ability. Remember, that's not right now, but is a couple or three years from now. And some of what he needs is less of some things. He is a guy who takes emotional penalties, and he is a guy who seems to have decided to do dumb shit on purpose sometimes. He has the habits of a player on a very, very good team with very, very good defence and goalies, so he gets a little sloppy with the puck if his first idea doesn't work. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and decide he's a fully baked cake.

The First Plan is More Fun

How can Cowan in the NHL be done? A lot of talk will focus, wrongly, on the salary cap, but the real issue is the roster limit of 23 and the fact that Cowan is the only waivers-exempt guy in contention for the roster. PuckPedia has a simple and logical projected NHL roster than is just below $2 million under the cap. It's got 14 forwards, seven defenders and two goalies – Anthony Stolarz and Joe Woll.

If we use movie logic, and make Cowan our POV character and arrange the world to suit the outcome for him we want, this is a simple problem. Waive Henry Thrun (or Phil Myers if your projected roster has him as the seventh defender) and run a team with 15 forwards and six defenders. Done.

But hockey is an ensemble drama, and while Cowan is getting his very special episode right now, he's not the star of the show. Sitting three forwards in the pressbox is not an ideal way to run a team and is irresponsible for a road trip. But that raises the underlying issue that there are forwards, two or three of them, who don't really have jobs on the Leafs.

If you watched Chris Johnston and Darren Dreger discuss this issue, they laid out the full story. The Leafs have tried to trade the forwards they don't really want, and they can't. No one wants Nick Robertson or David Kämpf without a lot of sugar on top. No one likely wants Calle Järnkrok too much either, possibly including the Leafs. Meanwhile Brad Treliving is genuinely looking to trade for a winger better than any name mentioned here who really will require cap space. So decision time is not about Cowan vs one player, it's about all those extras. And some of them may very well end up on waivers.

The Question

The question the Leafs will answer as they decide who to waive and who to sit in the pressbox as they await a future when cap space is tight – perhaps at the trade deadline, perhaps before – is not "Is Easton Cowan good enough now?" or "Who is better, Cowan or Robertson?" It's "What roster gives the team the most wins now and in the near future?"

The Answer

There may not be one right answer, but the Leafs do have choices, and a conservative approach says you plan for the injuries to come, so a wholesale cull seems very unlikely. Sending Cowan to the AHL before opening day seems very likely.

Remember, no matter what happens, a trip to the AHL is not a one-way journey, and Cowan has a team-friendly AAV of $873,500 with no performance bonuses (they count if you're recalled to use LTIR space). And given Cowan's proven ability to fully incorporate himself into a fourth line, he's surely the first recall, no matter the circumstances.

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