The Toronto Marlies held a practice at Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday before travelling to Chicago ahead of the Calder Cup Finals.
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Late in a tied Game 4 during the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference Finals, Toronto Marlies winger Easton Cowan committed a turnover in his own end that led directly to the game-winning goal by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The gaffe allowed the Penguins to tie the series at two games each and regain home-ice advantage.
Cowan, who spent almost the entire season in the NHL with the Maple Leafs, met the media afterwards and took responsibility for his mistake, while vowing to be better. The 21-year-old, first-year professional responded by scoring in both Game 5 and Game 6 to help the Marlies book their ticket to the Calder Cup Finals.
The Marlies will face the Chicago Wolves, who are the Carolina Hurricanes AHL affiliate, in the championship series, which opens on Friday in Illinois.
Cowan will be entering the series on a high.
“Maybe the signature moment of this process for Easton was what happened the other night,” said Leafs assistant general manager Ryan Hardy, who oversees the team’s minor-league operations. “He turned the puck over. He came out here, took it, owned it, and said, ‘I cost my team the game. I have to be better.’ He came out in Game 5 and he was better.”
Cowan’s confidence remained unshaken. The negative emotion quickly turned into determination.
“It’s frustrating,” Cowan said. “You don’t want to cost your team the game. It’s unfortunate. It sucks. But, you know, you gotta own it, and move on, and try to be better. And I felt like I did [that].”
“He’s got a dog mentality,” said Marlies defenceman Ben Danford. “He’s got a great mindset. He’s someone that mistakes happen and he doesn’t let them get to him. He even told me in the car ride to Game 5, he’s like, ‘I’m getting one tonight. I feel good. I feel good.’ And he did, and he had a great game.”
Cowan is tied for second on the Marlies with seven goals in the playoffs. He is now up to 13 points in 17 playoff games.
“‘Cowboy’ is a good nickname for him,” Hardy said, referring to the moniker that has followed Cowan since his junior days. “Sometimes with the puck, he has some unique gifts and special traits. For us, we try to give him the freedom to demonstrate those things. We don’t want to suffocate that. As he matures and grows, he will learn when to manage the puck in situations and when not to. He is an incredible talent. He is an incredible kid.”
Cowan’s minus-six mark is lowest on the Marlies in the playoffs, but growing pains are expected.
“They all have playoff beards, and he doesn’t because he can’t grow one,” Hardy said with a grin.
Cowan, who was Toronto’s first-round pick in 2023, always seems to come back stronger after a miscue and he doesn’t shy away from big moments. He delivered a series-clinching goal late in Game 5 against the Cleveland Monsters in the North Division Final.
“He is a kid who is going to have a massive impact on this organization over the next 10-15 years,” Hardy said. “What he’s made of is what we want a lot of guys to be.”
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Cowan, who produced 29 points in 66 games with the Leafs during the regular season, did not take part in Wednesday’s practice with the Marlies.
“He’s going to be fine,” assured head coach John Gruden. “He’s just taking a maintenance day. A lot of hockey for him.”
Cowan, who missed two games in the Conference Finals because of an upper body injury, is no stranger to long seasons. He helped the London Knights reach the Memorial Cup championship game in both 2024 and 2025. The latter year the Knights won it all with Cowan taking home MVP honours.
This is his first professional playoff run and first in Toronto.
“It’s a great city here,” the native of Mount Brydges, Ont. said. “Everyone’s starting to rally around us so it’s been good and exciting.”
As for his attempt at growing a playoff beard?
“This is all I get,” Cowan said sheepishly.
How much is he hearing about it from teammates?
“Too much.”
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Danford joined the Marlies following the end of his Ontario Hockey League season with the Brantford Bulldogs.
“It’s pretty unexpected that I’m in the Calder Cup Finals,” the 20-year-old readily admits. “It’s been a whirlwind the last month or so.”
After losing in the 2024 and 2025 OHL Finals with the Oshawa Generals, Danford is now getting another shot at a championship.
“It’d be pretty cool to win a Calder Cup even before I had my first year pro,” he said with a grin.
Danford isn’t just along for the ride. He has made a smooth transition to the professional level while playing opposite Marshall Rifai on Toronto’s third pair.
“It’s been really impressive because, like, a forward, you have 12 forwards and you can hide them,” Hardy said. “For a D-man, they’re six. There’s nowhere to hide, right? ... It’s hard to come in as a highly-touted kid from junior, and join a team of pros that have been together all year, and assimilate right away. And so he’s had sort of the reverence to, you know, defer to the older guys and learn and be a part of it. And he’s made our team a lot better since he’s got here.”
Hardy points out that Danford was likely feeling down after his OHL season ended earlier than expected when the powerhouse Bulldogs blew a 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference Final against the Barrie Colts.
But the Leafs have believed in Danford’s mental toughness since taking him in the first round of the 2024 draft.
“I think it was viewed a little bit as, ‘This is an interesting pick,’ just in, you know, what is the offensive upside of this guy?’” Hardy said. “But I think, at that time, we’re betting on the competitiveness and the intelligence, which he has in spades, and his character is off the charts. He is more confident with the puck than maybe people give him credit for. I think there is a good puck game from a transitional perspective. He has a lot of confidence. He is a smart, competitive player who loves hockey and loves being part of the team.”
Danford has picked up two assists in 11 games with the Marlies, but he’s finding ways to consistently generate chances. He landed 16 shots in six games during the Conference Finals.
“I’ve learned that I have to keep using my skating and hockey IQ to my advantage,” he said. “Those are things that help me in all aspects of the game defensively, offensively so just keep working on that and keep battling the defensive side of things. And keep shooting the puck. That’s a goal of mine. I’m shooting the puck more, trying to look for more lanes, and I think it’s starting to pay off.”
Better known for his shot-blocking and shutdown abilities, Danford now finds himself quarterbacking the Marlies second power-play unit.
“The confidence is growing for him,” said Gruden. “We don’t want to give him too much either. We want to make sure he’s in that comfort zone of still doing a great job of what he’s doing. Him and Rifai have played extremely well. But he’s showing some composure back there [and] if things go wrong, he reads plays so well, he gets back, and he skates so well. So, you know, it’s a good opportunity for him [on the power play] and it’s another step in his development. We’ll see how he handles it.”
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Gruden deserves credit for integrating young players into the lineup while helping the Marlies navigate a play-in series against Rochester before defeating higher-seeded opponents Laval, Cleveland and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
So, has Gruden earned himself a conversation with new Leafs general manager John Chayka about the vacant head coach position with the NHL team?
“No,” Gruden said. “He’s done a really good job of letting us kind of finish the year and kind of leaving us alone. Some nice texts and so forth. He’s obviously got a job to do, but he’s allowing us to do ours, which is really nice.”
But, make no mistake about it, Gruden is pushing hard to be a NHL head coach one day soon. That’s why he left an assistant position with the Boston Bruins to get head coaching experience at the professional level in Toronto.
“I want to be a coach at the highest level,” said Gruden, who is in his third season behind the Marlies bench. “That’s why I left the Boston Bruins, to take this job and check that box. But right now I’m focused on the Marlies.”
Gruden, 56, has also served as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders and as a head coach in the OHL with the Hamilton Bulldogs where he won a title in 2018.
“He’s obviously a players’ coach,” said Marlies captain Logan Shaw. “He loves giving the dressing room to the older guys and then coming in when he has to. But he holds you accountable to the right extent. We’re a very deep team. It’s easy for him to run the bench with all four lines and he’s very good at that.”
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Gruden has also handled Toronto’s goaltending situation well. During the regular season, the team split the workload between Dennis Hildeby (.898 save percentage in 23 games) and Artur Akhtyamov (.904 save percentage in 37 games).
Hildeby played well in the NHL posting a .914 save percentage in 20 games with the Leafs. Akhtyamov made his NHL debut this season but struggled with an .877 save percentage in three appearances.
Akhtyamov drew motivation from the experience.
“It was so good to learn from because obviously I was not really good there,” the 24-year-old from Kazan, Rus. said.
Akhtyamov was better with the Marlies in the AHL in the regular season and got the Game 1 start when the playoffs began. Gruden went to Hildeby for a do-or-die Game 3 in the play-in series against Rochester, but Akhtyamov took over the net for good in the next series against Laval.
“We always had a bit of a platoon down here,” Hardy said. “That is how we viewed the development of the goalies to make sure they were both getting enough. We started that way in the playoffs, kind of going back and forth, and eventually, the coaching staff felt like they wanted to ride Artie for a couple of games. And then the momentum started to build.”
Hildeby is not waiver-exempt next season.
“Our belief in Dennis is still massive,” Hardy stressed of the 24-year-old Swede. “He is an incredible goalie. As we all know how this goes, we may very well see him at some point in the next seven games. He may have a large bit to say about the outcome of this playoff.”
Although Akhtyamov appears to be at the top of his game right now with a sparkling .927 save percentage through 17 playoff games.
“Artie has done a phenomenal job,” Hardy gushed. “I would say we don’t get through Cleveland without him. We don’t get through Wilkes without him. Some of those saves he made, even in overtime the other night, he is feeling it. Ride it ‘til it bucks you, I guess.”
“It’s crazy,” said Danford. “I’ve never seen a goalie like him, especially for him to play like this in the playoffs. It’s the biggest difference maker when it comes to playoffs. You have a hot goalie, I mean, you can go all the way.”
And Akhtyamov already has proven he can go all the way. He backstopped Almetyevsk Neftyanik to a VHL title (Russian second league) in 2024.
“This experience in Russia, this help,” said Akhtyamov. “I know what I need to do.”
What’s the key to playoff success?
“Just maybe stay calm,” Akhtyamov said. “[It’s] the same game in my mind. This is same. Prepare like a regular season.”
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Alex Nylander played the overtime hero in Game 6 to send the Marlies to the Calder Cup Finals. What did big brother William Nylander think?
“He said he jumped up back home and was really happy,” the 28-year-old Marlies winger said with a big smile. “He’s happy for me and our team. He’s been watching every step, and it means a lot.”
William has remained in Toronto to support his sibling. He was actually at a Marlies playoff game when the Leafs won the NHL draft lottery and secured the right to pick first overall.
“He says I’ve been playing really good, and I’m getting better through each round,” Alex noted.
William is enjoying his brother’s playoff run and life in Toronto, in general, right now. The Leafs winger made an appearance on stage alongside American country singer Luke Combs during a recent concert.
“He’s been enjoying his time off, obviously,” Alex said. “He’s been working out too, and preparing for next season, but just having some fun, obviously, during his summer.”
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Marlies centre Jacob Quillan, who missed the final three games of the Conference Finals with an upper-body injury, skated on his own before practice.
“He’s going to want to play,” said Gruden. “There’s a possibility he could be in by mid [series].”
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Lines at Marlies practice on Wednesday:
Groulx - Shaw - Lettieri
Johnson* - Haymes - Tverberg
Valis - Pare - Nylander
Sim - Johnstone - Pezzetta
King
Thrun - Benning
Mermis - Villeneuve
Rifai - Danford
Smith - Chadwick
Akhtyamov
Hildeby
*Cowan absent
Power play units at Marlies practice on Wednesday:
QB: Villeneuve
Flanks: *Valis, Shaw
Middle: Lettieri
Net front: Groulx
QB: Danford
Flanks: Haymes, Nylander
Middle: Tverberg
Net front: Pare
