Easton Cowan of the London Knights has been named the Ontario Hockey League’s Red Tilson Trophy winner as the league’s most outstanding player.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ first-round pick in 2024 becomes an offensive tackle in 2023-24 unlike anything seen in the league since the mid-1990s.
The winger from Mount Bridges, Ontario recorded at least one point in every game between November 25, 2023 and March 24, 2024, putting together a 36-game point streak, the longest since Bill Bowler of the Windsor Spitfires Ranked as longest point streak. Earned 41-game point streak in 1994–95. Add the playoffs and Cowan’s streak was one game better than Baller’s.
Cowan finished the year with the second-best points per game total in the OHL after scoring 34 goals and recording 96 points in 54 games. He also represented Canada at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship in Sweden.
He helped London finish first in the regular season. The Knights are currently in the midst of the Western Conference Championship Series against the Saginaw Spirit.
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Cowan is the first London Knights player to win the Red Tilson honor since Mitch Marner in 2016 and the sixth player in Knights history, joining Marner, Dennis Maruk, Dave Simpson, Jason Allison, Corey Perry and Michael Houser.
“It’s great,” Cowan admitted. “I couldn’t have done this without this team and everyone in the organization so I’m really grateful.”
Cowan was one of two players selected in the second round by London in 2021, along with Oliver Bonk. London’s general manager Mark Hunter liked Cowan’s work style from the beginning.
“It’s really a credit to him and the effort he’s put in and the time he’s spent on and off the ice,” Hunter said. “You talk about skill and speed and all that good stuff but this would mean a lot.”
He played a year with the Komoka Kings in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League before joining the Knights full-time last season, where Cowan helped them reach the 2023 OHL Championship Series.
Cowan’s major junior career hasn’t been long, but looking back he sees what it meant to play in London.
“It’s close to home and obviously the Hunters and everyone in this organization knows what they’re doing,” Cowan described. “I really just trusted the process. I trusted them and they trusted me.”
OHL writers and broadcasters vote for the winner of the Red Tilson Trophy each year. It is named after former Oshawa Generals forward Red Tilson, who was killed while serving in World War II.
Tilson led the Generals to two league championships and was the top scorer in the then-Ontario Hockey Association in 1942–43.
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