“This is what our league is about:” Cowan battling all the way to Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game

Ryan Smith still remembers when a slight, quiet 10-year-old goalie from rural Manitoba rolled up to the rink in Winnipeg to join his spring hockey team.

“He’s from a small town in Manitoba and he played with us in the city,” Smith recalled. “(He was a) undersized, smaller guy but he worked hard. He had the attitude that, you know, every puck should be stopped. He was ahead of the kids at that age, for his dedication and determination.”

Those are still words the Spokane Chiefs Head Coach would use to describe his now very much grown-up goaltender, Dawson Cowan.

Well, maybe not undersized.

Cowan is listed at 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, though Smith argues he’s gained about ten pounds of muscle and grown an inch or two since last season.

“He dedicated himself to getting bigger and stronger and faster,” Smith said. “There was no doubt when he stepped on the ice at camp that he had done all those things and lately, he’s been playing unbelievable.

It’s a perfect time for him to take off.”

The 2024 NHL Draft-eligible goaltender clocked in at fifth among North American Goaltenders in NHL Central Scouting’s Mid-Term Rankings.

In his first season as a WHL starter, Cowan sports a 9-12-2-0 record to go along with a 3.21 goals-against average and .909 save percentage- not to mention the rare goalie goal and pair of assists he’s wracked up.

The Warren, Man. product was named WHL Goaltender of the Week on November 27, 2023.

Team staff members also point to him as a community-minded individual away from the rink.

Smith recalls one afternoon when Cowan took leftover sandwiches from a team lunch and drove around Spokane distributing the food to unhoused people.

“Every time you drive to the rink around every corner, there’s somebody that needs some help or needs some food or is going through something,” Cowan said. “Anytime you see that, you feel grateful for what you have and want to express how you can help them.”

Cowan’s hard work on and off the ice has earned him an invite to the 2024 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game.

Not bad for a guy who went undrafted in the WHL Prospects Draft and worked his way in as a free agent with the Winnipeg Ice.

“This is what our league is about. It’s opportunity,” Smith added. “You don’t always have to be drafted or listed. You can find your way. Nobody will ever shy away from a person that works hard- and that’s Dawson, he works extremely hard. He didn’t get drafted but it didn’t deter his dream of playing in this league and beyond. All he did was grind his teeth and work and it’s paying off so far.”